Yes, Unfortunately
by The Quoi
Summary: Yes, unfortunately' was all that was coherent in her long string of mumbled words. He smiled at her. She wanted to be sick. Love is such a fickle thing. R&R THIS IS GOING UNDER A RE-WRITE, AWH YAH.
1. An Unfortunate Fancy

**_A/N: THIS IS AN AUTHOR'S NOTE. ISN'T IT BEAUTIFUL? /cries_**

**_But seriously folks. I am actually proud of this story, because it's a story I actually finished. And, because I am proud of it, I think that it deserves to be spruced up and changed around a little and generally improved. So this is what I have done. I don't really think that you want to read the original for this chapter. I hated it anyway, and it was awkward in a lot of places. In essence, kill it with fire. Blast it with piss._**

**_I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE THINKING. "Ew. An OC story". But I promise you that you won't have to gag yourself with a spoon if you read the whole thing. I like Voldemort/badass Tom Riddle too much to do that too him. : )_**

* * *

As the ancient and bad tempered Professor began her verbal torture (some would call this a _lecture_), Cassie Smith's mind began to wander. The classroom disappeared and she gazed out of the window at the beautiful clear sky, staring dreamily and smiling at the warm fancies that floated in and out of her head. Dipping into childhood dreams of faeries and impossible ethereal beauty, she imagined herself as a princess of the earth, a deity of wisdom and elegance, caressing the bedazzled face of a handsome human man with striking eyes and stubble across his strong chin. He gazed at her as though she were a goddess, and the enchanted glowing forest around them was silent and peaceful, and her sparkling white gown flowed around her like an enchanted pool of pearls, and she grasped Mr. Handsome's strong masculine face, leaning down for a kiss sweeter than honey itself-

An amused cough sounded throughout her enchanted forest like the tolling of a death bell, shattering her celestial dream with all the daintiness of a hammer to a cracked mirror. Cassie's eyes flew open and she found herself leaning foreward slightly with her lips on the verges of pursing, giving her the look of a girl bent on kissing someone. Her cheeks turned a blotchy red, and she leaned back and pretended to be picking a piece of leftover food from her teeth with her tongue. She attempted a confused smile at Tom's raised eyebrow, but only managed to look as though someone had just hit her. He shook his head ever so softly and returned his attention fully to the wizened Professor.

She decided to make herself stay in reality this time, no matter how inviting the land of fancy was. She attempted to think of normal things that other sixteen year old girls thought about, but her mind, being in a sort of rebellion against her, had decided she needed to think more about the annoying tosh pot seated beside her. She wrinkled her little nose in distaste.

He _was _handsome, she supposed. But to her, he certainly wasn't Mr. Gorgeous with whom she had almost shared a kiss of the sweetest quality. Ignoring her informed opinion, the other girls in the school seemed to think that he indeed was Mr. Gorgeous. To them, he was the hunk of macho all the girls (and even some of the guys, she thought, picturing Lestrange and sniggering to herself) wanted. Cassie just could not see what the big fuss over his handsome face was all about.

Then there was his pathetic excuse for a personality. This was where the other girls at Hogwarts truly lost her. She couldn't understand why all the girls swooned so much over him when he mostly gave them the cold shoulder and barely spoke to them. She'd heard that at one of those Slug Club parties (she'd of course, she'd _heard_this, seeing as she disliked Slughorn almost as much as Tom), he'd only danced with the girl he took once, and when she proposed a snogging session, he turned her down.

Subconsciously, she turned her head to the side and watched her enemy tackle the paper mercilessly with his quill. He was such a _nerd_. All he ever did was study. He was always in the library, he never came to the Great Hall for dinner, and she was sure he had no friends. She sniggered again slightly. That'd be good ammo for later on.

Thinking of ammo, she began to doodle her revenge ideas on a loose piece of parchment. Tiny stick figures of herself were caught in various poses of dishing out some ass-whooping to tiny stick figures of Tom. She took extra sadistic pleasure to draw his face as contorted with agony as possible, grinning to herself as her quill scratched away.

Professor Merrythought must have been done with her verbal torture, Cassie realized as she noticed the sudden flurry of movement all around her. She looked up and wasn't surprised to see the rest of the class standing in two neat lines facing each other and the teacher looking at her in a way that deeply suggested she do the same. With a great sigh, she yanked herself from her seat and trudged over to one of the lines, situating herself across from a spotty, greasy, and colossally tall Gryffindor. The teacher gave her one last murderous look before turning to the rest of the class.

"Today", she barked sternly in her ancient, creaky voice, "we will be practising stunning. Yes I know, something very basic for you sixth years, but _a lot _of people", she paused to look the class disapprovingly over, slowing down on a spacey looking Gryffindor and skipping over Tom, "cannot do this."

Cassie flashed the teacher an aggravated look behind her back. _I've only been stunning people with perfection for the past six years..._, she thought indignantly, _stupid old hag, only noticing Tom because he kisses your ass. Yeah, I see how it is. You like that, don't you? Bet that's all the action you ever got..._Cassie continued on in this manner as the 'old hag' began to instruct them, like a bunch of first years, how to properly hold your wand to stun someone.

The truth of the matter, though, was that Cassie was ridiculously and unbelievably short. She stood a whopping five feet in total, and had a rather high-strung voice. She looked like she should be in second or third year and it was a common occurrence to be asked by substitute teachers whether she was in the right class. It didn't help matters much also that the few friends she did have were ones she had befriended before Hogwarts, and happened to all be in Hufflepuff. The other Slytherin's thought she was barmy for it.

The teacher began to count. Cassie immediately went into a ready stance, facing the colossally tall Gryffindor with a lightly serious expression. As soon as the teacher's syllables wrapped themselves around the number three, Cassie launched herself into attack.

"_Stupefy_!" she yelled forcefully.

The spell hit the Gryffindor boy at an electrifying speed, and he went flying across the room. She smiled. _Stupefy_had always been one of her specialties. She looked around to the teacher, and was surprised to find the withered old bean watching her. She even looked pleased!

"Ten points to Slytherin. Well done, Miss Smith."

Cassie felt elated. Finally, someone had noticed her work! And who would have thought it'd be the cranky old coot?

Professor Merrythought told her she could sit down, and she did so with a slight bounce in her step. She placed her chin in her hand and idly hummed a happy tune as the rest of the class practiced.

"Well done, Tom! Fifteen points to Slytherin! That was outstanding! Wherever did you _learn _that spell?"

Just as fast as it came, her happiness faded. Her smile slowly sunk from her face, and her head slowly fell down to her desk. An unhappy frown crossed her features instead. That's how it always was. She'd be happy about something, and Riddle always ruined it.

With Tom around, her happiness was like a bubble; short-lived and guaranteed to pop.


	2. An Unfortunate Landing

**_A/N: This chapter was actually pretty good when originally written, so I shall just go over it and fix all the awkward phrasing and run-on sentences that I know are abundant in this chapter. I was a big one for the awkward phrasing and run-on sentences when I wrote this._**

**_Which was four years ago. Whoah. Time… Going whoosh._**

* * *

Cassie sat cross-legged on her green quilted bed and absently polished her prefect badge. Her fingers pushed her smudgy rag around the badge's shiny gold letter 'p', her face wrinkled into an expression of gentle concentration. As she rubbed, her thoughts delved deeper and deeper into the deepest recesses of her muddled brain. The deeper she thought, the deeper her frown etched itself into her face, until she was outright grimacing in an odd pouty way. She felt misused and lethargic, and she was accidentally taking out all of her anger into an over-zealous polishing session.

The blue clock on her bedside table hummed happily when it reached the hour of six o'clock. It completely broke her well-disciplined concentration, and her eyes widened in fury at the tiny 'bleep!' sound her little alarm clock sang at her. It had no right to be making happy 'bleep!' noises! For a moment, she contemplated throwing its content self into the fire-place, but her fury quickly subsided when she realised that she was currently waging war with an inanimate object. Shaking her head bemusedly at the depths she had fallen to, she snatched her prefect badge and roughly attached it to her robes.

She rose to her feet, standing on her bed and giving a great cat-like stretch. She despaired a little that her hands were nowhere near the ceiling, even standing upright, tippy-toed on her bed. Giving a distasteful yawn, she jumped to floor.

_Dinnertime._

* * *

She jumped down the moving staircases two at a time, suddenly remembering her promise to her best friend Kelly to eat supper together. Thinking idle thoughts as she made her way hastily down to the wafting scent of delicious food, she rounded the corner, using her momentum to hop down the few remaining stairs.

It happened before she could even think.

Her foot suddenly twisted beneath her, slipping on the glassy marble staircase. With a great shriek of surprise, she was launched through air. She sailed towards the ground at an alarming speed, managing to catch her foot on the stone floor and crash right into a student ahead of her.

The student gave a grunt of surprise as they were thrown forewards, thudding to the hard, cold floor in a tangled mess.

The student she'd crushed fell on (as she realized quickly) _his_front, limbs stuck out awkwardly, while she landed on his back, her arm somehow becoming tangled with his. For a moment they lay there in the middle of the Entrance hall, not moving. Around them, less sophisticated students roared unchecked with laughter, while the snooty ones only shook their heads at her clumsiness. Cassie gave a little moan of embarrassment.

"I'm sorry...", she muttered pathetically, "I'm really, really, _really_sorry...".

She rose to her feet as quickly as she could, feeling a sharp, piercing pain in her ankle and almost falling back on top of him. She winced and held her ankle in her hand as the boy she'd knocked over got to his feet. Once fully upright, he turned to her and gave her a half-irritated, half-amused look.

Coldness swept through her body as she realised who she was looking at.

Riddle smirked at her.

"I bet you did that on purpose."

The coldness that had taken over her body turned to boiling fury. She glared daggers, mentally wishing he'd drop dead of some foreign disease.

"Well, then, I'm _not_ sorry", she bit back, "_that was my retaliation against your existence._"

He raised his eyebrows, and continued to flash that condescending little smirk of his.

"Really? To me, that seemed quite accidental."Cassie scowled.

"Well it wasn't. It was a planned operation from start to finish. Now, get out of the way. I've got better things to do right now. Like eat, or jump off a bridge."

With both tiny hands on his chest, she went to shove him away roughly. However, on the account of his being both two times as large as her and two times as strong, she only succeeded in promptly ricocheting awkwardly off of his flat chest and back onto the floor again. She felt like screaming. Her face burned red and she jumped to her feet. He gave her a winning and phony smile, before stepping to the side in a vain, gentlemanly fashion, gesturing for her to proceed.

She did so with haste, stalking off into the great hall. She clenched her fists tightly as she heard peals of laughter at her expense following her like a taunting demon all the way through the doors.

* * *

Kelly Abbott wolfed down the food they'd brought out with them to the lakeside as her Slytherin friend ranted. She was halfway through her chicken, half listening, when Cassie suddenly jabbed it violently with her fork.

"...and he's an ugly bastard that should go to hell with all those other spawn he hangs around with." She growled. Hatred and anger and all those other prickly emotions were radiating off of her in waves. If the food they brought with them hadn't already been cooked, Cassie could have used her aura to burn them.

Kelly looked at her friend with a bored look, desperately trying to pry the offending fork from her waiting chicken.

"You done yet?", she asked blandly.

Cassie glared at her, which drew a long and annoyed sigh from Kelly.

"Yes, yes, I agree with you, he is a complete and utter bastard. Now, can I _please_have my chicken?".

Cassie roughly removed her fork from Kelly's pierced foodstuff. Her friend gleefully continued eating, but spoke through her full mouth. Bits of chicken fell everywhere, and it was altogether a rather unattractive sight.

"Well, you can't deny...he _is_pretty hot.", Kelly paused. "Actually, he's a smokin' hunk of man-meat."

Cassie wrinkled her nose in distaste, a habit of hers.

"Remember when I told you about how someone could be attractive on the outside, but not so pretty on the inside? Well that's why I think Riddle is ugly. He's a complete and utter bastard."

Kelly shrugged.

"Who cares? He's hot!".

With a cry of despair, Cassie let her body fall backwards onto the grass. She rubbed her temples with her fingers and asked the Gods helplessly why they'd sent her such a shallow person to be her best friend.

* * *

_She walked down the dark spiralling staircase for eternity. It never ended; but instead it went further and further down into the depths of the earth as though it were slowly leading her to the farthest circle of hell. She was cold, and shivered in her clothes. Looking down, she realized that she wore only her thin white night-dress. She regretted not bringing warmer clothes. For a moment, she stopped on the marble stairs and tried to think of why she was letting herself be drawn farther and farther down._

_A feeling interrupted her and begged her, pleaded with her to follow it. Uneasily she continued on her way, the feeling radiating from deep inside her as though answering to a far off call. Eventually she came to a point in the staircase where it evened out. Here she met the figure of a boy, clad in all black. He was not facing her; instead he was looking down into the dark pit where the stairs continued to go. His left arm was outstretched and perched upon it was a tiny serpent who gazed at her without ever looking away. Its hypnotic gaze caused her to lose her footing, and she was tumbling, tumbling, tumbling down the never ending stair. The boy clad in black caught her._

_But his eyes were red._

_She felt her mouth open to scream, but sound refused to escape. His lips curled into a smile that was not a smile, but a cold, disused thing that curled like a knife around her very being. His voice started to say something-_

Cassie lifted herself vertical from her comfortable bed, her body doused in sweat. She was panting, and tears were streaming down her face. She felt more cold than she had ever felt in her entire life. After giving herself a moment to breathe, she spun a sigh of relief that nothing was going to hurt her, and that she was not on the never ending staircase with the boy who did not smile, and that it had been simply a bad dream brought on by continuous anger. She groaned quietly, and flung herself back into her blankets, covering herself up.

There was not much point, however, in attempting to go back to sleep. Her dream haunted her, even in her waking hours, and the generally gloomy atmosphere of the Slytherin dormitories were not helping matters. She needed to get up and get a breath of fresh air. She raised slowly like the dead from her bed, trying not to disturb her fellow dorm-mates in the early hour of the morning. She scratched her messy, frizzy mass of hair absently, and collected her things from her trunk. This morning, she would use the prefect's bathroom and the prefect's fabulously large and inviting bath tub. Taking care to grab her shoes, she tiptoed out of the room, and out of the dormitory.

She met no incident on the way to her destination, and soon Cassie was drying herself off and towelling down her hair. She took extra care to tame her curls into nice, pretty waves, and pinned them gently in place. Realizing then that it was the first trip of the year to Hogsmeade, she smiled at her reflection and pulled on her stockings and her favourite tartan knee-high skirt, and over that, a comfy pink sweater.

People were arriving sleepily now into the large bathroom, greeting her with yawns and quiet 'hello's. She greeted them happily, letting the cool, crisp air rejuvenate her nightmarish dreams. Slipping on a pair of thick black boots, she made her way back to the Slytherin dormitories. As she made her way quickly across the common room, she spotted something of hers lying on a table across the way. Without hesitation, she made a beeline for it, realising it was her lost homework from the day before. As she gathered it up, a male voice rang out quietly behind her.

"You have number six wrong."

She turned to the speaker, knowing already who it was. She put on her best Slytherin sneer and coldly looked over to him. Tom simply raised an eyebrow.

"Thank you, kind sir, for the help", she said, her voice pretending to be sweet while secreting acid.

Stuffing the homework in one of her sweater's deep pockets, she turned to the entrance. As she stepped out, she could have sworn she'd heard a soft sigh.

* * *

_Kelly is really a fair-weather friend. She's also kind of shallow, and tends to ditch Cassie. But Cassie tends to be rude to Kelly and can be really patronising. She kind of thinks Kelly is stupid, too, which doesn't help. But they're BFF Jills. I promise. _


	3. An Unfortunate Journey

_A/N: Fourth chappie. I'm really tired...Blegh._

Cassie ran the rest of the way downstairs, taking much care not to do a repeat of yesterday's epic crash. As soon as she arrived, she hastily joined the group of students gathered in a large group around Professor Dumbledore, waiting for their names to be checked off.

He began role-call, starting with the last names starting in 'A'. Cassie, her last name being 'Smith', was always one of the last names to be checked off. When she finally heard her name being called, she let a little cry of 'Here!' escape her lips, and off she went with a moving group out the door and down the hill, towards the horseless carriages. She hopped inside one with the group she'd been walking behind.

The carriages began to move slowly down to Hogsmeade station.

The ride was short, and Cassie was silent the entire ride, looking out the window and loosing herself in her thoughts.

At Hogsmeade station, Cassie got off and walked slowly into the village.

She walked down the bustling road, a chill reminiscent of winter blowing softly through the mountain village. Seeing the sign she was looking for, she turned right and opened the door to the Three Broomsticks.

Inside, it was pleasantly warm, and wizards and witches, children, and Hogwarts students alike sat around the tables talking merrily to one another. Her eyes scanned the room and rested on a familiar figure.

Kelly Abbot sat quietly at a table near the window, sipping butterbeer and humming a cheery tune. Cassie smiled, and quickened her pace to go join her.

When Kelly saw her, her eyes lit up.

"So you didn't forget about me!", she said, wagging a chubby finger at her mock-accusation.

"How could anyone forget about you?" Cassie retorted in mock-surprise.

Her friend laughed cheerily, and ordered another butterbeer, pushing it across the table to Cassie when it arrived. Cassie smiled and thanked her, taking a sip of the warm, fuzzy-feeling liquid.

* * *

An hour later found Cassie alone inside Honeydukes, glumly gazing outside at her friend and some Gryffindor sitting on a bench and snogging like there was no tomorrow.

Here I am, ditched (again) and sitting inside a candy store. Well that's just peachy, en't it?

Cassie gave a sigh, and grabbed a box of Bertie Bott' s Every Flavour beans, to amuse herself with later.

She sat on a bench with her candy, eating them and trying to guess the flavour. The sun began to set around her, and she gathered her things to get back up to the castle.

She took her good old time walking to the station, revelling in the late-September sunset that painted everything gold. She smiled and twirled about, amusing herself with a ridiculous fantasy of her being the beautiful Princess of the Sunset, the golds and reds painting her hair and face with beauty unknown to man.

When she reached the station, night was just falling, the moon beginning to shine bright on her prone form standing and waiting. She waited and waited.

No one else was there.

She glanced around nervously. No one.  
  
Then it hit her.

With a cry of despair, she realized that the last of the carriage runs had ended about half an hour ago. She slapped her forehead, and looked around, making sure that she really was alone.

With fear beginning to scratch its way into her thudding heart, she set off at a frightened and brisk pace up the lane. With every snapping twig and every noise she heard, she jumped and fear settled like a great ugly beast inside the pit of her stomach.

She didn't care. She ran.

Finally, panting, she was out of the forest lane and onto the long stretches of lawn that led up to the castle. She'd never got to appreciate how long the walk really was from Hogsmeade to Hogwarts until now. Golden light flooded from inside, and with it, relief flooded her body as well.

She ran up to the stone entrance steps, taking care to open the doors ever so carefully, so that they did not creak. It was possibly and hour past curfew, and all she needed now was another detention for being up after hours.

She crept along the hallways, feeling much safer, but the wariness never left.

She finally reached the corridor leading to the Slytherin common room, when she saw a light at the other end of the hall. Wandlight.

She smothered her gasp of surprise and flung herself behind a statue of a large snake with wings.

Footsteps drew nearer, and she begged with her breath to inhale silently. As the light reached her hiding place, she drew herself in further behind it, cramming her eyes shut and covering her mouth with a sweaty hand. The footsteps pause, but after a moment, she heard them fade into the distance.

Containing her glee at not being caught, she crept out from behind the statue, and continued on her way, keeping her heavy-booted feet as silent as possible.

Someone laid a hand on her shoulder.

With one fluid movement, she screeched, spun around, tripped over her own feet and fell smartly on her bottom.

She winced, and looked up to her capturer.

Riddle stared silently at her.

She sighed.

"Why", she asked, "must you always ruin my life?".

He simply quirked an eyebrow at her, and motioned for her to get up.

She did so, massaging her hurt bottom along the way, and followed him as he walked towards the common room. He quietly said the password, and they entered, a thick tenseness hanging in the air between them. He turned to her.

"I'm a little afraid to ask where you were and what you were doing an hour past curfew, but I'm afraid I really do have to ask."

She inclined her head, and sighed heavily, plopping herself into one of the comfy green couches.

"I missed the carriages...I had to walk back, and by the time I did get back, it was way past curfew." She stared into the dying embers of the fire, it being the only source of light in the dark room.

He nodded.

"Fine. Go to bed."  
  
Cassie's eyes widened a little.

"Sweet...No detention!", she ran with renewed vigor up to the girls dormitory stairs, turning on the first step, "Thanks!".

And with a cheeky grin, she ran up to her warm bed.

A little sigh rang out behind her.

_A/N: Not too fond of this chapter particularly, but that's okay. There'll be better chapters later on._


	4. An Unfortunate Loss

_A/N: Whee, fifth chapter! Okay, here it is folks._

The next morning was bright and sunny, highly contrasting to the cold chill beginning in the late-October air. It was a crisp sort of feeling, and Cassie flew open the window, letting the chilly air touch her face and the noon-sun bathe her is bleak rays. She was sitting in the library and leaning on the sill of one of the giant cathedral-like windows, looking down at the grounds where students wrapped in cloaks, scarves and mittens ran about and talked with friends.

Cassie placed her hand to her chin, propping up her head as she leaned onto the windowsill, in a surprisingly serene mood. Sighed contentedly, she turned and reached into her bag, pulling out something small and wooden.

She held it up to the sunlight, and the rays bounced off of it merrily. Nearly reflecting off of what should have been dull wood. She smiled. Hand it to her father to enchant it to sparkle.

The wooden object was a small figurine of a girl. She had long, dark brown hair, beautiful hazel eyes, and a determined expression. She was smiling confidently, and he smile was so contagious, Cassie found herself mimicking it. The little figurine girl wore light coloured furs, and held a spear in her hand, decked out for what adventure lies at the north.

Her smile softened when she remembered her father.

His kind face, his straight ebony hair and his dark, deep black eyes that seemed to hold all the worlds secrets behind their doors. Little crow's feet spread from the corners of his eyes, wrinkled from constant laugher and smiling eyes.

She closed her eyes, and his voice began to speak to her.

He told her his favourite story to tell, a story about a fearless brave girl who ventured across the north on the back of her friend, the white bear. She heard his soft voice describing the girl helping her bear hunt, and in her mind's eye, she saw it too. As he told the tale, his little pocket knife would be slowly transforming a piece of wood into the fearless adventurer, or her friend the white bear. She watched mesmerised as his big, strong hands delicately carved her favourite heroine as the tale wrapped around her attention and held it tight.

Cassie forgot herself, her eyes closed, holding the figurine lightly over the open window, caught inside a time and place only she could see, hearing a voice only she could hear.

The bell sounded for lunch hour.



* * *

Cassie gave a small screech as she was wrenched from her own world, jumping a little in surprise.

The figurine slipped from her fingers and sailed down to the ground, five stories down.

She gave a scream of 'No!' and grabbed for it, but it was too late.

The figurine sailed downwards.

Cassie bolted down the flights of stairs, pushing people out of the way, and generally causing havoc. Her heart thudded in her chest, and black terror began to wash over it. She couldn't even imagine what she would feel if she reached the place the figurine had landed and found it splintered to pieces.

Even the thought provoked tears, and she bit them back as they stung at her eyes.

She bolted down the last flight of stairs, crashing through the crowd coming in for lunch as she hastily ran towards the front doors.

She flung them open, and ran to the east wing where the library was located. As she reached the spot, dread began to mix in with the black terror constricting her heart, not knowing what to expect.

The turned the corner and looked to where the figurine would have landed.

But it wasn't there.

She blinked, and desperately looked around.

Not a thing, wooden or otherwise lied in the grass.

She gulped. '_Maybe someone picked it up...'_ she thought, hoping it was the case.

She also hoped that whoever had found it wouldn't think it useless and throw it away. That would certainly be terrible.

She took a deep, steadying breath and told herself gently that it wasn't gone yet. Somebody had it, and if she asked around, they'd give it to her.

Or so she hoped.

She slowly walked to lunch, her brow furrowed in thought and a tiny frown on her face. She watched the 

ground as she walked, people walking around her and muttering about how slow she was going. She didn't care. It was all it took for her not to break out in hysterical shouting, screaming about her lost item. When she finally reached the Slytherin table, she plopped herself down, still staring off into space.

The other Slytherin's around her shuffled a little ways from her, a little frightened of the red that was slowly spreading across her cheeks and the teeth that bit out from her mouth.

Cassie's thoughtful expression turned into an angry grimace as she realized that there was a chance she'd never ever see the figurine again.

She roughly grabbed a large chicken leg and tore at it like a furious tiger; pieces of it hanging from the corner of her mouth a she savagely tore through it.

The girl across from her, a snobbish looking fourth year, turned her already upturned nose at her, giving her a disgusted look that clearly stated: "How _unladylike."_

Cassie looked up at her and roared lightly, chicken flinging from her open mouth.

The girl's eyes widened and she ran off to another end of the table.

With an ironic grunt, she swallowed the last of her chicken, thinking that these sort of outbursts were probably why she had a very minimal amount of friends.

_A/N: Well, here's the fifth chapter!  
Here we get to learn a little about Cassie's home life.  
Don't worry; Tommykinz is in the next chapter. XD_

_AND PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU THINK IT'S TOO RANDOM...CAUSE I THINK IT IS... ; 3 ;_

_Well, no wonder, Quoi. You have nothing planned and your just writing as you go!  
Shut up, conscience. Nobody likes you._

_Reeeeview or DIEEEEEEE._


	5. An Unfortunate Limb

_A/N: Yes, I must put a useless author's note before every chapter! D:_Cassie wasn't sure how it happened, nor was she really interested in finding out. All she knew was that she was hanging upside down by her ankle from a tree.

It was around eight in the evening (or a few minutes before, depending on the clock), on the first Thursday of November. A cold wind had picked up through the morning, and it tore at the grounds, causing the occupants of the great stone castle to either retreat indoors, or bundle up tight. A distant rumble of thunder could be heard, far off in the deeply darkening sky. Another burst of wind ripped through the treetops.

Surely, she thought, trying desperately to hold down her skirt, this had been the most horrible day of her life.

* * *

The morning had started out okay, with Cassie waking up bright and early, feeling utterly refreshed from her night's sleep. She had yawned and paused, looking out at the sunny grounds with a feeling of happiness. She danced from bed, got dressed, grabbed her school things and made her way down to breakfast, a bounce in her step.

That's when things began to slide downhill.

She tripped on the way down and crashed into some poor, unaware student. Again.

She bit her tongue as she tried to eat her toast.

She accidentally spilled ink on the handsome boy she'd had her eye on for awhile.

He yelled at her.

She stubbed her toe going into the divination classroom.

She accidentally blew up the potions classroom, causing Slughorn to give her another three weeks detentions.

A Giant Tantactula attacked her in Herbology.

She accidentally insulted Kelly, causing her friend to stalk off.

In Care of Magical Creatures, a Hippogriff slashed her cheek for yelling slightly when a flock of birds took off.

At the end of the day, when she was at her wits end, she finally gave in and ran to her favourite tree to cry a little and moan about the trials of menstruating.

She sat there for a long while wallowing in her self-pity and thinking about how late it was getting.

That's when she fell out of the tree and got her foot caught between two precariously placed branches.

* * *

Which brings us back to the present.

Winds rustled the treetops. Cassie swung back and forth slightly.

She knew she'd fall out sometime.

During the fast-approaching thunderstorm. Get electrocuted.

Then fall on her head, get amnesia, and possibly crush her spinal cord and die.

She shuddered, looking down dejectedly at her wand that had fallen to the grassy ground, far out of the reach of her short arms. Another rumble of thunder, louder this time, echoed off of the lake. She twisted around a little, giving the castle a longing look. She then sighed, closed her eyes, and let her arms fall to her side.

With it, her skirt fell downwards, and Cassie had the urge to cry all over again.

"What", said a voice, "are you doing hanging upside down?"

Cassie jumped in surprise as she heard the voice, flailing around frantically to try and get a glimpse of the speaker. Her skirt became tangled with her, and with one loud, sickening crunch, the branch snapped and she fell to the ground.

She let a scream escape her lips, prolonged and terrified.

Eternity passed by, everything moving in slow motion. She knew she was going to meet the saints soon, and wondered how on earth she was going to explain putting worms in her sister's shoe when she was six.

"Why on _earth _are you _still screaming?" _the voice asked her.Cassie paused and opened her scrunched eyes. She blinked.

She hadn't died! In fact, she was quite alive! She grinned happily, taking deep breaths of sweet, glorious air. She was seated quite comfortably in the arms of some person.

Then she turned to her saviour, words of thanks already gracing her lips.

Which turned into a great, ugly swear.

Tom had his eyebrow raised at her antics, a tiny smirk lifting the left corner of his mouth. He closed his eyes lightly and inclined his head.

"I'll be guessing you want me to put you down now?"

Cassie was too busy fighting an internal war to hear him.

_He saved you!_Tom snapped his fingers in front of her face.

He's Tom.

But he saved you from a young death, thank him!

He was probably just under the tree when I happened to fall! Nothing 'saviour' about it!

Cassie started, jumping out of his arms in one swift movement.

"Er, yes, thank you, I guess. Um, well, I'll be off you sod! Oh, that didn't come out quite right, but I'm sure it won't..."

Tom took a finger and put it to her lips, hushing her.

He smirked.

"Shut up, will you?".

She scowled, and pushed his finger away. She turned and began to walk towards the castle hastily, aware of the angrily brewing storm.

A clap of thunder, a flash of lightening, and the heavens opened up.

In seconds Cassie was drenched, and the wind tore at her with howling force, whipping her hair around 

her face and nearly knocking her over. She screwed her eyes shut and kneeled, her hands in front of her face, waiting for the wind to settle.

It didn't.

She vaguely heard someone yelling something at her, but the wind was far too loud and she couldn't hear them. Suddenly, a hand wrenched at her arm and pulled her upwards, launching them both into a frenzied run across the massive, slippery grounds.

The torrential, freezing rain slashed into her body, nearly numbing her completely. She could barely feel the firm grip on her arm, pulling her along.

Finally, they reached the castle, slamming into the closed front doors, drenched and freezing. They tried opening the giant doors against the rain, but they were locked fast. Panting, they banged their fists against the wood, yelling.

But no one came.

Tom finally grabbed her hand and dragged her all along the school, looking for an open entrance. They were all shut tight, and no one ever heard their yells over the howling wind.

They sought shelter in a crook against the Herbology greenhouses and the castle wall. The rain still fell relentlessly upon them, but it was shelter from the biting wind. They sat, crouched, huddling against the wall and shivering badly. She turned to him.

"Don't you have your wand?" she managed out through chattering teeth.

He shook his head gravely, saying he had forgotten it somehow.

A tiny, miserable little noise escaped her blue lips, and she curled tighter into a ball, trying to warm herself.

They sat there for a long time, the only noise the howling wind and the raging thunder, huddled close. It was pitch black outside, save for the instances where the world was illuminated by a bright white lightening.

It was in once of those instances that Cassie saw Tom turn his head to her quickly, an expression of realization dawning his features.

"Cassie! I think I have a way inside."

She turned to him hopefully.

"We'd have to walk to Hogsmeade though...and break into Honeydukes."

Cassie's face fell.

He smiled a little.

"You up for it?"

She tilted her head, surprised Mister Goody-Good Riddle would make such a suggestion.

She allowed herself the smallest of smiles and nodded.

"Anything to get out of this rain!".

* * *

They crept through Honeydukes, Tom surprising Cassie by knowing how to pick locks with a hairpin.

"Wizards and witches", he whispered to her, handing her back her Mickey Mouse hairpin, "don't think about muggle tricks. So they don't put wards up. Since we didn't enter by force or by magic, the wards didn't go off."

They moved as silently as they could through the back end of Honeydukes, taking care to creep down the stairs to the cellar with as minimal noise as possible.

In the cellar, it was as black as pitch, the only light coming from the tiny, flickering flame of a lit candle carried by Tom. It illuminated the room and showed to her how soaked they really were, judging by the ebony tresses that clung crazily to his pale face, and the way his clothes hung off of him.

Together, they silently moved boxes to reveal a passage way in the floor.

He opened the hatch, and gestured to her.

"Ladies first, or would you like me to go first?" he quirked an eyebrow at her, smirking.

She scowled slightly, but hung back for him to climb down.

The passage way was long and dark. At some points (Tom being as tall as he is) had to duck down to be able to fit. Cassie suddenly felt a wave of thankfulness at her lack of height, fitting through every low bit easily.

The air was dank, dry and chilly. A hushed, dead silence hung about, the only noises their footsteps and nothing more. Cassie nervously looked behind her, a creepy feeling flooding her body. Tom, a few steps ahead, paused and turned, the cheery glow of the candle softening his features. She sped up a little and stopped just in front of him, her heart thudding with nervousness.

"C'mon..." He told her softly, gently linking his arm with hers.

They continued walking.

Cassie glanced over her shoulder into the darkness once more, and, like before, a creepy, unexplained feeling of dread and fear rose within her. She quickly swung her head around frontwards, her eyes again met darkness ahead. She tried to swallow the lump in her throat, a bead of nervous sweat running down her face.

Tom paused, causing her to stop as well.

"Perhaps you should hold the candle..." he told her, gently placing it into the hand that was not linked with his.

She stared at the candle and its flickering light, and saw how it penetrated the utter blackness ahead. A small swell of confidence and relief flooded her this time, and she quietly thanked him, beginning to walk again.

They reached the castle, coming out from behind a statue of a one-eyed witch. Tom blew out the candle, and gestured her to follow him.

They made it down into the dungeons, near where the Slytherin common room was, when somebody placed a hand on their shoulders.

Cassie screamed bloody murder and Tom let out a yelp of surprise.

Wand light cast into their vision a bewildered Professor Dumbledore, who gazed upon their wet clothes and stringy wet hair with surprised blue eyes.

"Miss Smith, Mister Riddle...What are you doing?" he asked them curiously, eyeing Tom with a look she'd never seen Dumbledore use before.

Apprehension.

Tom seemed to immediately revert back to his old, polite self in an instant.

"Well Sir," he said, his voice perfect and innocent, "Miss Smith and I had been outside when the storm hit. All the doors were locked, and no one heard us knocking. We went looking for another way in, and we eventually found one."

Cassie noted how he clearly left out breaking into Honeydukes, making it sound as though they'd found an unlocked door. It dawned on her now the reason why he never got in trouble. He was a flawless liar, and he also knew how to tweak the truth without fail. Add that innocent look and polite tone, and no one would ever know.

She held back a snort.

_With that tone, he could've told you that we were just out for a quick shag in the Quidditch field and anyone would've brushed it off, telling him 'not to worry, not to worry' and all that._But Dumbledore seemed to be one of those that didn't brush it off.

He gave Tom a sceptical look, and gestured for them both to follow him.

They did as they were told, dragging their feet a little more than they should. Tom gave her a sour look, and she returned in with an indigent one.

"_How on earth was I supposed to know it was close to curfew! I was stuck in a goddamn tree! And don't blame me for that random thunderstorm!" _she hissed at him.

"_Well maybe," he hissed back "if you hadn't been such a fool and climbed the goddamn tree in the first place we wouldn't be in this bloody mess!"._They bickered like that all the way to the Headmaster's office, where Dumbledore hushed them and told a large gargoyle a password. The gargoyle lept aside to reveal a stairway that winded upwards. They climbed the stairs in silence, glaring at one another. At the top they reached an oak door with a shiny brass knocker. Dumbledore knocked smartly.

The door opened to reveal a large, sumptuously decorated office with books lining the shelves and sitting chairs placed around the room. Headmaster Dippet sat at his desk, sifting through papers with a harassed look on his face. He glanced upwards and told them both to take a seat in either of the rather hard looking chairs in front of his desk. They sat, beginning to shiver in their wet clothes.

Dumbledore exclaimed a little, and apologized for not drying them. He took out his wand, waved it, and suddenly it felt as though a just-dried towel was wrapped around her. Her clothes were no longer wet, and neither was her hair. She despaired a little when she realized her hair would now be at its natural 

untameable curl state, but pushed those trivial thoughts aside. She turned to Tom, who wasn't looking at her, and stifled a laugh at the one piece of his ebony hair that decided it wanted to stand upright.  
Dippet cleared his throat, bringing them to attention.

"So, what on earth were you two doing out there?"

Tom replied with the story he'd told Dumbledore, and Cassie took it upon herself to nod in agreement here and there. Dippet looked at him long and hard before smiling and nodding.

"Alright Tom, I believe you. But, as for you, Miss...?" He paused.

Cassie's heart sank a little, and she opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off.

"Smith", Tom told him simply, giving her rather despaired expression a glimpse.

"Well, Miss Smith, I don't know about you. You knew there was a storm coming, so why would you go out? Mister Riddle was probably out looking for stray students, he's a Prefect- "

Cassie was just about to cry out that she was a Prefect as well, but Tom yet again beat her to the punch.

"She's a Prefect too, Sir." She could tell he was refraining from giving the Headmaster an odd look; how could he not know who all his Prefects were. There weren't that many.

Dippet sputtered slightly, than paused again, gazing at her suspiciously with squinty eyes.

"Oh...Alright then...Off you go. To bed, both of you!".

With that, he returned to sifting through papers.

Dumbledore gestured for them to follow, and they followed him all the way back to the Slytherin common room. They said goodbye, said the password, and stepped inside.

Inside, Cassie turned around and angrily looked at Tom.

"What a useless bloody Headmaster he is!". But he wasn't looking at her.

He was looking at a group of girls seated on one of the couches, looking at Cassie with evil eyes.

"Out on a snogging session?"

"Phew, Tom! Where'd you get _her?"_"Well, I suppose she'd only be good for one-night stands, wouldn't she, Tom?"

Tom was already making his way to the boys dorms, and didn't reply. On the first stair, he turned though, and looked at Cassie who was looking at the girls with pure hate, hurt and frustration.

"Goodnight, Miss Smith." He told her simply, and turned to go to bed.

Cassie nodded to him, and brushed past the group of girls and collapsed on her bed, falling to sleep in seconds.

_A/N: Oooh, big, long, juicy chapter for you! Hope Tom wasn't too OOC; I did try. O.o  
I had alot of fun writing this chapter, and I think it's one of my favourites so far._

REVIEW OR HAVE ME CATEPAULT SMALL KITTENS AND EASTER BUNNIES AT YOU! D8


	6. A Fortunate Tree

_A/N: As suggested and requested by the lovely reviewer, Terra106, I've written this optional chapter. It's simply chapter 6 in Tom's point of view, so we get to see his thoughts and feelings. Thanks Terra, for requesting this. 3 Reading this chapter is optional, of course._Tom woke up that morning feeling resolutely _cruddy._

The sun streamed in and hit his closed, sleeping eyes. He groaned rather pitifully and raised the green Slytherin quilts up to his forehead, trying to block out the intruding light. His eyes felt as though they were laden with lead, and when he tried to pry them open, it felt as though some tiny demon were taking its little claws and lightly scratching his eyeballs. With another moan, he turned to the beat-up brass alarm clock sitting on his bedside table.

His eyes widened at the time.

He fell back onto his messy sheets and blankets, muttering curses and oaths at the man who decided waking up early was a good idea. All the other boys seemed to have left already, which was unusual. He was usually the first one up.

Finally, he got the incentive to tear himself from his warm covers.

His bare feet touched the cold stone floor of the castle, and with great effort, he didn't try and bring them back up to the covers. He walked, scratching his messy black hair, towards the shower. He shivered. It was cold out today, and wearing only pyjama pants wasn't very warm.

Teeth chattering slightly, he undressed and showered himself, the hot water waking him up much better than a faulty alarm clock or the unforgiving bright sun. Once he was dressed and his hair combed, he slung his bag around his shoulder and made his way down the breakfast.

He moved quickly; morning classes started in five minutes. He climbed down the last few stairs. The Great Hall was just ahead of him now.

Then he heard a loud, intrusive, rather familiar squawk which sounded much like a very surprised pelican.

He spun around just in time to see Smith herself come tumbling down the stairs. He hastily jumped out of the way, not wanting to become her run-way like last time. Unfortunately the small third year Ravenclaw boy standing behind him did not know of her hobby of using innocent students as landing cushions.

Smith barrelled down towards the poor boy, completely out of control. The boy only had time to let out a terrified squeak before being engulfed in a tornado in the shape of a short, black haired girl called Cassandra.

She quickly got off of him, bleating apologies and straightening his glasses. Once the boy looked half-alright, she ran to the Great Hall with speed he didn't know she had and grabbed a piece of toast from the nearest house table. He knew why too; almost instantly after she picked up her piece, the breakfast items completely disappeared.

His stomach bleated at him slightly for food, but he ignored it, feeling sort of queasy anyways.

As the day progressed, Tom began to feel more and more cruddy. He felt out of it, and he felt dizzy when he got up too fast.

He managed to get by without anyone noticing his ailment, whatever it was, but he knew he wouldn't be able to for much longer. By the time dinner rolled around, he was starving (having missed lunch for fear of puking it up) and ate quite a lot more than he was normally accustomed to.

After dinner, he still felt as though he were going to pass out, so he made his way back to the dormitory.

He slept for a couple of hours, shedding his outer coat as a sudden feeling of warmth went through him. When he woke up again, the sun was nearly set.

He gasped a little.

It felt as though he couldn't breathe, like there was a weight on his chest that wouldn't leave, no matter if he stood or lied down. He opened the window, trying to get a little air, aware of the cold sweat beading on his forehead. He finally gave up and made his way down to the front doors, exiting onto the grass and walking leisurely, drinking in the fresh air that seemed to calm the weighted feeling. After a while he found himself at an old, tall oak. He looked up at it appreciatively, looking at its long, thick trunk and branches.

That's when he noticed something unnatural about said tree.

He approached it cautiously, not quite certain what the thing was. It was brightly coloured, that's for sure.

As he approached a face came into view.

His eyebrows shot to the top of his forehead.

There she was her face crimson, her hands attempting to hold down her skirt and her clunky, overly-large shoe caught in between to precariously placed branches. Cassandra Smith.

She looked down at the ground, where he saw her wand. She was giving it puppy eyes as if begging for it 

to come back into her hand. She took one short arm and attempted to grab for it, but her stubby little arms were a few meters short.

A rumble of thunder echoed across the water of the lake.

She twisted around, giving the castle a longing look, then sighed, letting her arms fall to her sides.

With it, her skirt came down as well and Tom lowered one eyebrow as she unconsciously gave him a peep show.

She looked about ready to cry, so he decided to intervene.

"What", he asked her, "are you doing hanging upside down?"

At the sound of his voice, she jumped in surprise and began to flail around uselessly as she tried to get a glimpse of the speaker. Her long skirt became caught with one of her arms and with a loud snap, the branch she'd been caught on snapped.

She fell towards the ground with a scream, and before he knew it, he had moved directly beneath her.

She fell lightly into his arms, and he was surprised at how utterly weightless she was.

Although now safe, she continued to scream.

He paused.

He blinked a few times.

"Why on _earth _are you _still screaming?"_ he asked her, an irritated edge to his voice.

Her screaming torrent stopped abruptly.

She opened her scrunched eyes, blinking a few times before a look of wild happiness came to her face. She grinned and balled her fists up in utter excitement. He rolled his eyes.

She turned to him, a grateful, happy look plastered to her face and words of thanks already leaving her lips.

Then she saw his face, and that soft word of thanks turned into a snarling number of startling dirty swears.

Internally he sighed, but externally he gave her that smirk she hated so much and inclined his head to her.

"I'll be guessing you want me to put you down now?"

She was silent for quite awhile.

He blinked a couple times.

Then rolled his eyes for the second time, and snapped his fingers in front of her face.

She jumped as though shocked by electricity from his arms, and began muttering gibberish that sounded like a mix between thanking him and insulting him. He quietly wondered how on earth she'd managed to ever get through school with the gibberish she was currently throwing at him.

He took a finger and placed it to her lips, silencing her.

He flashed that smirk again.

"Shut up." He told her simply.

She scowled and turned from him, walking towards the castle.

Tom sighed, this time for the headache and the general woozy feeling that seemed to be brewing within him.

A clap of thunder, a flash of lightening, and the heavens opened up.

He heard the rain and wind before it hit them, drenching them both in cold October rain and tearing at them in icy claws. Ahead of him, through the rain, he saw the outline of Cassandra kneel to the ground, trying to block out the storm.

He looked to his left and saw another torrent of wind come bursting along the field towards them at alarming speed. He shouted to her to run, but she stayed put, not hearing him over the roaring wind. He ran.

He grabbed her arm roughly, pulling her into a frantic jog across the grounds towards the castle doors.

The rain was mind numbingly cold, but he ignored it.

They finally reached the castle, slamming into the doors by accident as the torrent of wind clipped them from behind. They were drenched and shivering as they banged and yelled at the closed doors, but no one ever came.

He took her arm again to try and find another door around the castle. They were all shut tight, and no one ever heard them.

They eventually took shelter in between the greenhouses and a crook in the castle. The rain fell straight down on them here, but the wind couldn't touch them. He looked to his right where Cassie was huddled against the wall, shivering like mad. She turned to him.

"Don't you have your wand?" she managed out through chattering teeth.

With a sinking feeling he realized that his wand was sitting in his outer-robes pocket back up in the boys' dorm rooms. He shook his head gravely at her, and she omitted a little noise of misery and curled into a tighter ball, trying to keep warm.

He had half the mind to warm her himself, but he knew it wouldn't help at all. He was just as drenched as she was.

They sat there for a long time, huddled together against the wall like two miserable scamps, drenched to the bone and freezing. The darkness was absolute, no light coming from anywhere but the instances of lightening. As a flash went off and a rumble sounded in the distance, he remembered something.

He turned to Cassie, relieved he'd remembered.

"Cassie! I think I have a way inside", he told her over the wind.

She turned to him, hope glowing off of her pretty eyes.

"But, we'd have to walk to Hogsmeade though...and break into Honeydukes", he explained, knowing she wouldn't like the idea.

She didn't.

The glow of hope in her blue eyes faded like a dying star, and she looked at the ground playing with her shoe.

He felt instantly guilty for some reason, and let a small smile on his lips as she looked back up to him.

"You up for it?" he asked her, a little mischievous lilt entering his voice.

She tilted her head to the side like a curious child but gave him a little smile and a nod.

"Anything to get out of this rain!".  


* * *

The door clicked, and slowly swung inwards.

He ushered a wide-eyed Cassie inside, stepping in himself and re-locking the door. With a small smirk, he handed the bewildered girl back her hair pin.

"Wizards and witches," he whispered, ""don't think about muggle tricks. So they don't put wards up. Since we didn't enter by force or by magic, the wards didn't go off."

She gave him a little nod of interest, and then made their way down the stairs to the cellar. He was a little nervous that she would fall and alert the owner to their presence, but her feet didn't betray her this time.

It was pitch black in the cellar, and he lit small candle to light their way. He could see her properly now in the flickering light of the small flame, and he couldn't help but noticing how a piece of her long, wet ebony tresses clung to the bottom of her rosy little lips.

He gestured to her to help him move a couple of boxes, where underneath, the secret passage into Hogwarts was hidden.

He lifted the latch on the trap door and opened it.

Smiling, he gestured to her.

"Ladies first; or would you like me to go first?".

She scowled at him, and the piece of hair fell a little. She didn't move, so he hoisted himself into the hole, stepping lightly on the ancient stairs leading down into the black.

The passage was just as he remembered it; long and dark. The ceiling was low at some points, which forced him and his height to duck his head down uncomfortably. Behind him, Cassie's little footsteps echoed lightly off of the walls, her breath bated as though she were scared to breathe too loudly.

A hushed, dead-like silence hung in the air like a great black blanket around them, and Tom imagined for a moment that he could almost _feel_ the darkness pressing onto his cold skin.

Suddenly, the second pair of footsteps that echoed behind him became fainter and fainter, as though someone were slowing down. He could hear her breath quickening as she began to let it the dark's black 

fear flood into her veins.

He stopped and turned, lifting up the tiny fluttering candle to illuminate his face and the path behind him. Cassie let her breath loose and hurried over to him, coming to a stop just in front of the candle and his face, panting quietly as though she'd been chased by something sinister.

"C'mon...Let's go..." he heard himself say.

He gently linked his lean arm with her scrawny one, making sure himself that she wouldn't get left behind. They began to walk, and were walking for a little while when he felt her head turn, looking at the black wall in behind them. She quickly snapped her head back ahead of them, but other than the small quantity of light the candle gave them, the dark wall was there as well. He heard her breath quicken again, and his feet stopped.

"Perhaps you should hold the candle..." he commanded her, his voice barely above a soft, quiet, gentle whisper.

He passed the little candle from his large hand to her tiny one.

She stared at the candle's flickering light, and how it penetrated and alighted the darkness ahead, and he saw her body become rid of its tenseness. With a steady breath, she thanked him softly, and they continued on their way into the darkness.

When they reached the castle they came out from behind the statue of the One-Eyed Witch in the third floor corridor. Keeping together, they crept all through the castle and safely made it to the dungeons. They were just about to turn the corner and climb through the portrait hole when a hand placed itself on their shoulders.

Tom couldn't help but let out a small surprised yelp, but beside him, Cassie screamed as though she'd been murdered.

They turned to the assailant as wandlight cast into their vision the image of Albus Dumbledore, who was taking in their wet clothes and hair with a surprised expression.

After his initial surprise had passed, he looked upon Tom with his usual look of apprehension, causing something in Tom to clamp up and growl.

"Miss Smith, Mister Riddle...What are you doing?" he asked them curiously, scrutinizing them above his half-moon spectacles.

"Well, Sir," he replied politely, "Miss Smith and I had been outside when the storm hit. All the doors were locked, and no one heard us knocking. We went looking for another way in, and we eventually found one."

Beside him, he could almost sense Cassie holding in a snort. Why, he wondered, he probably would never want to know.

Dumbledore looked at him sceptically, a look he was very used to from this professor, then said professor gestured for them to follow him.

Tom held back a growl in his throat and they followed reluctantly, passing Cassie a sour look that which she returned indigently.

"_How on earth was I supposed to know it was close to curfew! I was stuck in a goddamn tree! And don't blame me for that random thunderstorm!" _she hissed at him.

"_Well maybe," _he hissed back_ "if you hadn't been such a fool and climbed the goddamn tree in the first place we wouldn't be in this bloody mess!"_They fought like this all the way to the headmaster's office, and all too soon they were standing outside the door.

Dumbledore knocked smartly, and from inside an imperious, weedy voice told them to enter.

The sumptuous and fancily decorated room was not strange to him, having visited it many times for errands and Prefect business, but beside him, Cassie drank it in with a slightly furrowed brow, interested.

Headmaster Dippet sat in his usual chair at the desk, fiddling with papers, the usual harassed look present upon his old features. He gestured for them to sit in two hard chairs, and they did so with reluctance, shivering through their wet clothes.

Dumbledore suddenly exclaimed something about forgetting to dry them, and with a few muttered words, their clothes were warm and comfortable again.

Tom watched Cassie as she was dried by Dumbledore, her hair drying into an untameable mass of black curls that bounced lively over her shoulders. He wondered vaguely why on earth she would want to magically straighten it, when he saw Dippet raise his head out of the corner of his eye.

The man cleared his throat and brought them to attention.

"So, what on earth were you two doing out there?"

Tom explained with careful politeness the same story he had told Dumbledore. Internally he grudgingly thanked Cassie for being so accepting of his story, nodding at intervals and feigning interest.

Dippet looked at them both long and hard before nodding and smiling.

"Alright Tom, I believe you. But, as for you, Miss...?" He paused.

The expression of the short girl beside him fell a little, and he saw her opening her mouth to reply when he suddenly felt himself speak.

"Smith", he replied.

"Well, Miss Smith, I don't know about you. You knew there was a storm coming, so why would you go out? Mister Riddle was probably out looking for stray students, he's a Prefect- "

Her expression turned angry in a heartbeat, and Tom felt a slight twinge of annoyance towards the Headmaster.

"She's a Prefect too, Sir."

He was forced to refrain from raising an eyebrow. How could he not know all his Prefects? There weren't that many.

Dippet spluttered slightly, looked at her suspiciously, then exclaimed something about sending them to bed.

That was all he needed, so he turned on his heel and followed Dumbledore out of the room. They followed him all the way down, said there goodbye's, then walked through the portrait hole.

As soon as he entered, his eyes fell on a group of fourth year girls, sitting prettily on the couch and giggling. At the sound of the door opening, they turned about. He vaguely heard Cassie exclaim angrily about how stupid Dippet is, but she was over bowled by one of the girls on the couch.

"Out on a snogging session?"

"Phew, Tom! Where'd you get _her?"_"Well, I suppose she'd only be good for one-night stands, wouldn't she, Tom?"

He heard them speak, but he was already to the boys dormitory stairs and didn't reply.

On the first stair, he turned though, and looked at Cassie who was looking at the girls with pure hate, hurt and frustration.

"Goodnight, Miss Smith." He told her simply, and turned to go to bed.

_A/N: FINALLY. Rawr. Tom's POV on chapter six. Enjoy! _


	7. An Unfortunate Illness

_A/N: Seventh chapter, coming in for landing...3...2...1...LANDED!_

_Okay, well, I'm gonna post the seventh chapter before I post chapter six in Tom's POV. Why am I doing this, you ask? Because this one's done, and the other one's taking forever. When it's done, I'll replace chapter seven with chapter 6 in Tom's POV and this will be after. Alrighty then, without further ado, the seventh chapter!_

Cassie lay listlessly across her bed, the soft sheets tangled in her short legs and her ruffled pillow lying under her head horizontally. Her hair messy black hair was splayed all around her, and one foot hung out of her bed. She stared blankly at the ceiling of her emerald hangings, the moon splashing cold white light onto her face as she sighed and turned her head to the rusty little alarm clock to check the time.

Okay, well, I'm gonna post the seventh chapter before I post chapter six in Tom's POV. Why am I doing this, you ask? Because this one's done, and the other one's taking forever. When it's done, I'll replace chapter seven with chapter 6 in Tom's POV and this will be after. Alrighty then, without further ado, the seventh chapter!

12:00 AM, midnight.

Like a zombie rising from the dead, she sat up, surveying the room with a sweep of her eyes. The other girls around her were fast asleep, off in their own little dreamlands. Cassie felt a little put out as she gazed on their sleeping faces, longing to feel tired. But for some reason, she simply wasn't. And so, making up her mind, she swung her feet round the side of her bed and placed them on the floor.

The stone floor was cold, sending goose bumps crawling over legs. Her pyjamas, a two-pieced flannel pants-and-shirt did little to help the cold. It didn't surprise her though. They were nearly as old as she was, being given to her when she was four. They were huge for her then, and even now they were a little on the big side. They were her favourite, and she never ever found a pair just like them.

They were styled as a newspaper that was titled 'The Daily Banana'. The articles held pictures of giant bananas with captions like 'giant banana takes over San Francisco' and the like. When she was bored, she liked to read the articles, being full-fledged bologna stories that made no real sense and made her giggle.

She lifted herself from the warm recesses of her bed and began to pad softly across the cold floor, her bare feet making the tiniest of slapping noises against the ancient stone. With great care, she slowly opened the dormitory door. It made little creaks but opened otherwise noiselessly. She looked down to the dark spiralling stairs that headed down to the common room. No noise met her ears at all, which told her that no one was present in the room.

With slow steps, she made her way down the staircase. The fake enchanted windows let the moonlight spill onto her pale skin and illuminated her way. She breathed softly, ever so softly, as she passed the closed dormitory doors of other years as not to alert them of her presence or wake them up.

When she finally reached the bottom she stopped. Shadows flitted across the walls and furniture, everything illuminated by the dark red glow of dying embers in the grate. It was colder down here, much colder. She looked around the room, taking everything in at the late hour. It was so quiet. It seemed 

unnatural; the room should always have some sort of commotion going on. She spotted a couch right next to the fire that had a crumpled blanket sprawled across it, and made her way over.

She sat down at the end, lifting the blanket slightly to crawl under it.

Skin brushed skin.

She immediately retracted her feet from underneath the covers as though stunned, stifling a startled scream with her hand. With the other, she yanked off the blanket and let it fall to the side, her heart beating madly.

She heard a tiny groan, and her eyes scanned the couch before her.

There, lying dressed fully in his school uniform, was Tom.

She let out a breath, taking the hand from her mouth and placing it over her chest to steady her heart. She closed her eyes for a moment, letting herself settle before she opened them again.

"Tom", she asked irritably, "why are you lying there in your uniform?"

One onyx coloured eye opened and rose slowly up to greet hers. He looked at her for a moment, his eyes seeming slightly unfocused and misty before looking away and closing them. He took his lightly shaking hand and grasped the blanket she'd thrown off, pulling it onto himself and curling back into it, shivering the tiniest bit.

Cassie paused, and furrowed her brow slightly.

This wasn't like him.

She crept off of the couch and padded over, kneeling in front of him. She peered quizzically into his face, judging whether or not he was going to snap at her for disrupting his beauty sleep. He did no further movements, seemingly asleep. She placed her hand beneath her cheek, debating whether it was worth her time to wake him.

His face was pale and drawn, dark circles beneath his closed lids, his hair in disarray and splaying across the couch cushions. Beads of sweat ran down his face, his cheeks flushed unhealthily.

Sleep having completely deserted her; she decided to take her small hand and gently shake his shoulder, easing him out of slumber.

He opened his onyx eyes slowly. They were brimmed with red from fitful sleep and were misted over and unfocused. She bit her lip, and moved her hand from his shoulder to his forehead. His eyes widened 

and he looked vaguely angry at her touch. His skin was hot to the touch, though he shivered.

"You're sick", she told him ever so softly.

He glared indigently, but his gaze was vague and half-hearted.

"You should get changed from your uniform..." she told him, her voice never reaching above a soft whisper.

He continued to attempt to glare at her.

"I don't need your help", he told her, his voice croaky and weak.

He sat up, but immediately fell down again, dizziness taking over completely.

He tried to stifle the groan of pain that escaped his lips, but it was too late. She'd heard it.

Cassie stayed stationed beside him, biting her lip as though she were thinking on something. With a tiny sigh of finality, she got his attention.

"Tom...I could go get your clothes..."

He looked at her with a peculiar look on his face. With one half-hearted raise of an eyebrow, he shook his head.

"You're willing to go into a room full of teenage males a lot larger than you in the dead of night just to retrieve the clothes for somebody you don't even like that much?" he quirked.

She gave a despairing sigh.

"I'm a weirdo, okay?"

He raised his other eyebrow.

"No arguments there."

With that she rose into a standing position. She crossed her arms, trying to pry any heat that could be found in her body. She turned slightly to him and asked him which bed was his, and which set of drawers.

He told her, and cautioned mockingly to watch out for the horny sixteen-year olds.

She scowled at him and bit out "The only horny sixteen-year old I need to worry about is _you."_

She turned on her heel and started on the stairs up to the boy's dorms.

It felt odd to be going up these stairs, having always taken a right when she got to the far end of the room. It was exactly like the girls dorms, only most of the dorms doors' weren't closed. She giggled quietly as she saw the seventh year boy's dorm. They were all piled on the floor in a fright of a mess, snoring loudly. Finally, at the very top, hung the sign that read 'Sixth Years'.

The door was slightly open, and she peered inside, her apprehension growing. As silently as she could manage, she swung the door fully open. Inside, the boys slept quietly, only one snoring softly. A little breath of relief escaped her, and she made her way to Tom's bed by the left-hand wall. She had just placed a hand on his dresser when another hand, heavier, lay on her shoulder. She spun around, a defiant edge cutting itself into her bright eyes.

Five boys stared down at her, lounging at bed posts and looking down on her with arrogant smirks.

"Looks like a little mouse lost its way", said one of them mockingly, pinching her cheek.

"Yeah...Say, she's pretty cute for a mouse", one of them told his buddy.

"Leave me alone", she told them angrily.

One of them roughly grabbed her hand.

"Well, how can we deny a little mouse what she came to get when she wanders so willingly into our midst?" he stared at her hungrily, licking his lips. He went to stroke her cheek, but Cassie shied away, grimacing her disgust.

"Yeah, I think we should give her a little gift..." suggested one of them, to a round of arrogant smirks and laughs.

"Leave her alone" commanded a cold, strong voice.

They all turned to look at the speaker.

Tom leered at them with a disgusted look on his face.

"She was up here getting something for _me_, you dolts. If you had asked her, you would've thought twice in your decision of harming her, yes?" his eyes were as cold as ice.

They all looked uncomfortable, and noticeably scared.  


Cassie's eyebrow furrowed, not really understanding.

Tom walked up to her, his usual confident swagger in place. He grabbed his drawer handle and took out a few items, motioning for Cassie to follow him as he left the dormitory. She did so with haste, giving the group of boy's one last angry, disgusted look before closing the door smartly. Tom made his way down the stairs, but as soon as he got to the bottom, he let out a small groan and quickly went to the couch, falling onto it.

He swallowed a couple of times, as though trying to get rid of a lump in his throat. She made her way over to him, taking the clothes from his grasp and kneeling again on the floor. She licked her lips and smiled a little.

"Thanks..." she mumbled gratefully.

"I told you to watch out for the horny teenage boys" he whispered out, his voice failing.

"Um...Here's your clothes..." he handed them to him, biting her lip again.

He took them, his hand shaking slightly. Cassie played with the hem of her flannel pyjama pants, off in thought land. When she shifted her eyes back to him, he was in the middle of pulling off his shirt. She immediately went crimson in the face, unable to help her blushing tendencies. He didn't look half bad...Skinny though. Though, other than that he looked quite nice. Muscles he did have, but not to a point where it was body builder. She hated body-builder's bodies. They looked like mouldy cheese.

"You checkin' me out?" he asked her, having been sitting shirtless for at least half a minute now, watching her scan his body.

She gave a small squawk and nearly fell over, her face being nearly devoured by crimson.

"No I was not!", she squeaked, protesting her innocence.

He raised an eyebrow and began taking off his pants.

_Okay, that's enough of him I want to see ever again, I'd rather not see the hip-area,_ she thought as she turned around. Her face became even more red (if that was possible) as a sudden urge to turn around washed over her.

"I'm done", he told her.

She heard him fall back onto the cushions, and she turned around. He was still shirtless, but it was covered by the blanket. She tottered over to him, shimmying on her knees. She placed a hand on his 

forehead. He was still hot. She told him she'd be right back, and fetched a facecloth in her rooms, wetting it with cold water in the girls' shared bathroom. When she was back downstairs, she placed it onto his forehead.

"There's nothing you can do except...sleep it out, I guess", she said softly.

She pulled the cushions and blankets off of the other couches in the room and placed them on the floor around the place where he lay, making herself a comfortable little sitting place. She lied down, her hand propping her chin up, watching him as he slept. After awhile she felt her eyelids slowly close, and she fell into a dreamless sleep.

_A/N: Wowee, I'm getting good at these long juicy chapters! Hope you enjoyed it, and like I said before, the 6__th__ chapter in Tom's POV will be posted soonish._

_Thanks to_ kalabangsilver, Silvercatclaws, Noriko Takahara, SharkMaiden, Owl Emporium, HarryHermione3, xXxemilyxXx, _and_ Terra106 _for your reviews on my story so far._

_Your encouragement is much appreciated._

_Now...Push that little blueish button and review. Or I'll eat you and your family. D8 _


	8. An Unfortunate Moustache

_A/N: Whoo, do a little dance, make a little loooove, get down tonight! YEAH! GET DOWN TONIGHT! EIGHTH CHAPTER, GET DOWN TONIGHT, LALALAAALA!_

Cassie was wrenched from the world of the sleeping when someone rudely decided that it would be funny to pour water onto her face. She sprung upwards into a seated position, spluttering and furiously trying to blink the water out of her eyes. She shook her head violently, rubbing her hands over her puffy, tired eyelids and clearing them of the intruding liquid.

Peals of laughter sounded within the room, wherever said room was, and she ripped her eyelids apart to look around.

After the blurs all around her began to take solid form, she realized that she was on the floor in the common room. Blankets and pillows were strewn around and beneath her, and had to blink an extra few times before she realized why she was down there in the first place.

_Riddle was down here...he was sick..._She turned her head to the left where the couch he'd slept on was. He wasn't there.

She blinked again, still slightly disoriented as the people around her began to go to class.

_Class! _

In a flurry of movement she was scrambling up the stairs to the girls dormitories, chucking off her pyjamas, throwing on her uniform, hopping up and down as she tried to put on her socks and brush her teeth at the same time, then flying down the stairs again.

As she ran to class, she realized she'd forgotten her bag, and took a wild guess at what class she had first, the memorized timetable completely deserting her.

Five minutes into class, she burst into the Defence against the Dark Arts room, where professor Merrythought was standing at the chalk board droning on about something or other. At her violent, loud entrance the student body turned to look at her. A cross scowl donned the cranky old Professor's face at being interrupted.

"Miss Smith, how _wonderful_ of you to join us _five minutes late"_ she glared at her menancingly, stalking towards her.

She pointed severely towards the door.

"Out in the hall please so we can discuss tardiness and what your punishment for being late should be".

Reluctantly, Cassie dragged her feet back into the hall.

Once the old crow was done her dull, popular lecture of "Why Students Should Not be Late", she informed her that she had detention tonight to talk further of terrible tardiness and that an essay on the subject would be due tomorrow morning.

Cassie plopped herself into a seat, having a sudden, inexplicable urge to whack her head off of her desk.

* * *

Kelly sat beside the lake with her friend, having an odd sense of déjà-vu as her friend ranted and raved about stupid teachers.

Kelly rolled her eyes as Cassie went on and on, smiling ironically as she waited for her friend to finish.

"...and that old hag looks like a bloody toad that's been run over by a large truck and she should be hit in the head with a two-by-four with nails nailed into it."

With her conclusion, Cassie fell to the grass in an angry heap of limbs and disoriented hair.

Kelly sighed, and turned to her friend.

"Yes, Cassie, Professor Merrythought sucks some major ass."

Cassie glared at her.

"You're just saying that", she accused.

"You're right," she said flatly, "I am."

* * *

Cassie stared blankly at her homework, trying desperately to keep her eyes from closing.

It was 2:56 in the morning, and she had about three feet of homework to do. Professor Merrythought had gone over the riveting theory of "Why Students Should Not be Late" with her at least three thousand times, and then she had made her write "I will never be late again "on the board another hundred times. It had been midnight when she finally stumbled in the common room, completely abandoned for the late hour.

The words on the parchment were beginning to swim before her eyes as she vaguely thought about her nice, warm bed.

Somebody walked by.

With a strangled yelp, her homework flew in every direction and she tumbled ungracefully to the floor, hitting the carpet with a little more force than she had ever wanted to hit the carpet at.

She groaned, and slapped her hand to the table, hoisting herself up again. She massaged her bottom and winced. She was going to have one mother of a bruise there tomorrow.

The person who startled her paused at the portrait hole and quirked an eyebrow at her. She looked up and sighed despairingly.

"Oh," she said unenthusiastically, "it's you."

Tom raised both eyebrows this time at the mess she'd managed to make of her homework. With an easy flick of his wrist, he took his wand out of his shabby robes pocket and waved them at her papers, sending them back into a much neater pile than they had been in the first place.

Another tired sigh escaped her little lips and she mumbled thanks, plopping herself back into a stuffy chair.

Instead of continuing on his way, he walked towards her.

"Doing homework?" he asked her bemusedly, eyes darting from the clock to her work.

She moaned.

"Yes."

He gave her a familiar, condescending smirk.

"Then don't get detention", he advised her, talking as if to a very slow child.

She took a swat at his arm, her face twisted into an ugly scowl.

"Weren't you going somewhere? Off to snog someone from your extensive selection of whores, maybe?" she asked him rudely.

"No, not tonight, Miss Smith, but if I'm not mistaken _you_ are my latest whore according to school gossip."

Cassie groaned.

Since that group of dratted fourth years had seen her and Tom come inside that rainy night together, the whole school had been entertained with the idea that Tom Riddle's long time nemesis had suddenly fallen for him and that they'd been outside somewhere in a private snogging session, and in worse rumours, something _more._

Tom's trademark smirk returned with a vengeance, and he outstretched his hand in a gentlemanly fashion.

"Care to join me for some hot cocoa in the kitchens?" he asked her, his voice imitating that of a charming prince asking the beautiful damsel to ride on his noble stallion.

Cassie gagged a little and looked at his hand as thought it were poison, but sighed angrily.

"I suppose cocoa would be nice right now..." she mumbled.

His smile was fake.

"Lovely."

* * *

Together, they stalked quietly through the halls.

She was in her sock feet, carrying her heavy-footed boots in her hands. They had narrowly missed Peeves on their way down, forced to jump into the nearest broom closet as he floated by cackling something about hearing little footsteps.

When they finally reached the main floor (two floors up), he turned to the right, down a slightly smaller passageway.

Along this wall was a giant painting of a bowl of fruits. With a little smirk, Tom lifted his finger and tickled the large yellow pear.

Cassie raised an eyebrow at him, deeming him completely mad. She jumped when the pear giggled softly and a door appeared where the painting once was, her eyes wide with surprise.

They walked through the door.

Inside was a gigantic kitchen, with numerous shelves, cupboards and counters lining the walls. In the middle of the expansive room were four exact replicas of the house tables in the great hall. On the far end of the room were exact replicas of teacher's desks. With wonder, she watched one of the little 

house elves walk over with a bowl of lemon drops and place them on a desk labelled "Professor Dumbledore". The little elf clapped his overly large hands together, and the bowl of candies disappeared.

Suddenly, the elves noticed them.

There were only about fifteen on duty at the moment, the rest sleeping or cleaning, but they swarmed them like a pack of eager to please bees. They all took turns asking them something, ushering them to sit down at the nearest house table, placing numerous food items in front of them.

Cassie and Tom were served a multitude of sweet meats and pasties, hot, bubbling cocoa with marshmallows appearing in large mugs in front of them. Cassie thanked them profusely, and Tom said nothing.

Only after the elves were positively certain that their guests were taken care of did they return to what they were previously doing. Only, one little elf stayed behind.

She was smaller than the rest, wearing a little flower behind her large floppy ears. Her eyes were big and blue and they stared up at Cassie in wonder.

Cassie smiled at her.

"What's your name?" she asked politely.

The little elf fidgeted with the flower in her hair, and if elves could blush, she'd be doing that now.

"I'm Daisy, Miss", she looked at her toes, then timidly looked back up into Cassie's face.

Cassie gave the little creature an encouraging smile.

"I'm Cassie. You have a lovely name, Daisy. My favourite flower!"

Daisy positively _beamed._

"That's Tom. He doesn't talk much, so don't mind him", Cassie said, smiling and jerking a teasing thumb in Tom's direction.

"I know Master Riddle well, Miss. Er, would Miss and Sir like anything else?" Daisy's voice was emboldened and easier now.

Cassie grinned.

"Ooh, I'd _love_ another chocolate éclair!" she burst happily.

Daisy beamed again, and scrambled off to do her bidding.

Out of the corner of his eye, Tom was watching her. Cassie felt his gaze burning through her head, so she turned around grumpily, scowling.

"You know, if you wanted to burn a hole in my head, your wand would be much quicker-"

Then she caught sight of his face.

Unbeknownst to him, chocolate foam from the cocoa was spread all across his upper lip, giving him the comical appearance of a serious western sheriff.

She stifled her giggles and took a napkin from the table, leaning in and wiping the foam from his lip in one fluid motion.

He blinked and closed his eyes, pursing his lips in what some would call an embarrassed manner.

"It's okay, you should see me with milk!" she laughed.

Tom's eyes flicked open and he smirked, a devilish glint in his eye.

"That sentence had a very sexual ring to it, Cassandra."

Her face filled with crimson, and her expression turned ugly. Taking the napkin, she began to swat at him violently. He blocked all her blows easily, a little smirk in place.

"You nasty pervert!" she yelled at him.

"Calm down, Cassie! Your chocolate éclair is here".

She glared.

"You're lucky I've got chocolate..." she wagged a finger at him.

She then turned to the waiting Daisy, a giant chocolate éclair in her hands.

She thanked Daisy and apologized for the racket, Daisy brushing it off and then running off to complete other work.

Cassie stuffed the pasty into her mouth, her cheeks filling with food as she attempted to chew the mass of sweet chocolaty goodness.

Tom raised an eyebrow again.

"You look like a chipmunk."

She glared.

"Do you _want_ a beating or something?"

_A/N: Whee! Eighth chapter! Hope you like eet. It's a little bit shorter than all the other one's...but deal with it._

Thanks to all the lovely reviewers who make my day!

Now, push that little bluish button. If not, the Night Monster will come into your bedroom while you sleep, skin you, and wear your skin as pyjamas. D8 XDD


	9. An Unfortunate Blizzard

_A/N: SUDDEN CHRISTMASSY MOOD ON THE 25TH OF JULY. Silver Bells...Silver Bells...It's Christmas time...in the city...Ring-a-ling...Hear them ring...Soon it will be Christmas day!_

Cassie pranced down the path, her cheeks and nose aglow with redness and her breath steaming in the air as the white fluff danced down from the sky. It landed on her dark hair and onto her bright red hat and on her black robed shoulders. She smiled happily and twirled in a circle, her mitten-covered hands reaching to the sky.

A good few inches already lie upon the ground, and her heavy-set boots made tiny crunching noises as she danced forwards. She was all alone on the road, the winter wonderland enveloping her in its chilly white magic as the naked trees all around her shivered in a slight cold breeze.

She laughed as she tripped over a root hidden beneath the snow, falling onto her back in a flurry of disturbed flakes. She continued to giggle to herself as she began to swish her arms and legs back and forth, creating a pretty angel in the snow. Carefully, as to not ruin her masterpiece, she lifted her body from the snow. She turned and bent to her soaked knees to look at it, adding long, beautiful hair to the girls head with her finger. She then rose back onto her feet and skipped off, sliding sideways through the slippery frozen white.

After awhile of walking, she finally reached her destination.

The little village of Hogsmeade looked like the sort of painted village you'd find on Christmas cards. The little roves were covered in white, the children played with snowballs and a horse-and-sleigh was trotting down the road, jingling on its harness were dozens of silver bells. Cassie grinned and made her way to Honeydukes, her nose catching scent of the many sweets and chocolates that wafted through the air.

She entered the warm, crowded shop and took off her mittens, placing them in the pocket of her long, thick black robes. With her other hand she reached into the opposite pocket, bringing out a few shiny coins.

She walked about the store, wondering about which items to buy and selecting a few. Nearly all were of the chocolate variety. She got joined the rather long line excitedly, waiting patiently to sink her teeth into the thick, sugary sweetness. When she reached the counter, she flunked down her choices onto the hard surface and a plump kind-faced witch charged her three sickles and two knuts with a smile on her face.

She paid for the chocolate and left the shop, heading directly for the Three Broomsticks, thoughts of warm butterbeer and melted sweets on her mind. The bar was crowded, as per usual, but seemed a little less so than Honeydukes as everyone was seated at a table, talking and drinking with friends. Since it was a Hogsmeade day for the Hogwarts students, the bar was filled with them all escaping the cold. A few old warlocks sat at the back, discussing something with serious looks on their faces, and two little witches sat at the bar, talking to the largely pregnant barmaid with excited and happy faces.

Cassie sat down at one of the only free tables, catching the barmaid's eye. The little barmaid walked over to her, placing a fond hand on her large, round belly. She smiled when she reached Cassie.

"You'll be having a butterbeer, I presume?" she inquired, gesturing to her red cheeks.

"Yes, please", Cassie said enthusiastically, nodding her head.

The barmaid smiled and Cassie suddenly felt the urge to feel the woman's belly.

When Cassie had been small, she'd been fascinated by the expecting. When her aunt had become pregnant, she'd remembered putting her hands to her rounded belly in wonder, pulling up an ear to listen and closing her eyes pretending she could hear the baby talking to her.

The woman caught her look and beamed brighter, offering her to feel her belly.

Cassie immediately rose and placed her tiny hands onto her abdomen, the feeling of happiness and wonder coming over her once again. Suddenly, beneath her fingers, she felt a tiny bump!

Cassie gasped in delight as the baby kicked again, and the woman giggled, her sunny smile widening.

She sat down after that, thanking the woman kindly.

"I needed that", Cassie said contentedly.

"I know" said the woman, "It cheers you right up, doesn't it?"

Cassie agreed, and the woman went back to work.

* * *

She placed the chocolate on her tongue, and took a sip of the warm, sweet butterbeer. The butterbeer melted the chocolate right there on her tongue, and Cassie swallowed slowly her eyes closed in pleasure. She looked into the Honeydukes paper bag once more, and pulled out the last piece of chocolate, holding it between her fingers lovingly.

It was at that moment, which someone decided to sit at her table.

She looked up at the intruder that had dared spoil the moment between her and her precious chocolate, and glared at the person who raised an eyebrow back.

"Why", she asked him, "Must you ruin the best moments of my life?"

He gave a non-committal shrug.

"The bar's so full and you were so lonely here, sitting all by yourself at the back with your two-seater table. Were you not able to secure a date, or did your friends just abandon you?"

"I'm not alone! I've got mister Chocolate to keep me company!" she said defensively, feeling sore at his jab.

"So you've got no friends or date, so you turn to food. Poor thing" he gave her a mock-sympathetic look.

She scowled something she did often with Tom around.

"I've got friends! She just has a really bad cold..." she mumbled, having the irksome feeling of knowing he was right. Kelly was off with one of her other friends buying things at Zonko's Joke Shop. She'd seen them when she'd sprinted to the Three Broomsticks. It didn't bother Cassie that she hadn't invited her, it just bothered her that she said she'd had a bad cold. And a date...Well, Cassie hadn't been able to secure a date since first year.

"I see", he said simply, and Cassie got a sinking feeling that he'd seen Kelly at Zonko's as well.

The pregnant barmaid, whose name Cassie had found out was Penny, came to their table again. She asked her if she wanted a re-fill, to which Cassie agreed full-heartedly. Then she turned to Tom.

"Want anything, dear?" Penny asked with a smile.

He shook his head no, a dark look crossing his face.

Cassie looked at his shabby robes and in a sudden rush she asked for another butterbeer. This one wasn't for her, but was for him.

Penny the barmaid came back with her refilled butterbeer and the second butterbeer. Cassie paid for them, tipping her largely, then turned to Tom as Penny walked away.

She pushed the drink over to him.

He stared at her as though she'd grown two heads.

"Why'd you just waste your money like that? I'm not going to drink it, you didn't have to buy it for me."

She sighed and pushed the drink further towards him.

"Oh, just drink it, will you? Make me feel better about "wasting my money"..."

He gave her a hard look, then with his lips pursed, her picked up the drink and sipped it.

Once their bellies were full of the warm liquid, they put their coats back on and headed outdoors.

Outside, the light snow had decided to become a full-fledges blizzard, the snow pounding down in fast-moving flakes, carried by an icy, strong wind. Cassie shivered and put on her mittens, wrapping her cloak tighter around her body. Tom fastened up his own long, trench-coat like cloak and together they bent their heads to the storm, walking through at least a foot-and-a-half of snow.

The wind roared around them, and once they left the safety of light from the houses, it became increasingly harder to see. They stayed very close together, trudging through the snow to get to the carriages. Once they finally got there, they climbed in the nearest one, closing the door with a snap. No one else was waiting, so the thestral pulling the carriage set off.

Inside Cassie shook the snow off, panting and shivering. The skin-tight pants beneath her long swing-skirt were soaked through, and her hat and mittens were too. She pulled everything tighter still to her body, her toes aching with cold.

Tom sat beside her, imitating her plea for warmth, only a little less desperately.

* * *

The ride to Hogwarts was a long one, the blizzard pounding onto the roads and making it difficult to maneuver. Cassie began to feel extremely drowsy, her head lolling onto Tom's shoulder on multiple occasions before she caught herself and lifted her head again. Tom's head was hanging downwards, his eyes closed, but she knew he wasn't sleeping. After a while, she couldn't be bothered catching herself and her head lolled onto his shoulder. She fell asleep almost instantly, her mouth hanging open in a positively fetching manner.

Tom lifted his head when the carriage stopped, turning to face the weight that rested on his shoulder. He raised his eyebrow when he saw her, the corners of his mouth twisting upwards slightly in amusement.

Her mouth hung open and her eyebrows lilted upwards in a carefree expression, snoring softly. It was quite cute, really but he cringed slightly as he saw a drop of drool threatening to fall onto his coat.

He lifted a hand and shook her shoulder gently, saying her name softly and coaxing her out of her sleep.

She lifted her head with a bewildered expression, rubbing her eyes with tiny balled fists and yawning.

"We're here" he informed her bluntly.

She muttered a little "Mhmm" and they stepped into the blizzard, hunching their heads against the wind again.

* * *

Inside the common room it was warm, and Cassie hastened to run up the stairs of the girls dorms to get out of her wet clothes, thanking Tom with a yell as she ran up round the corner.

After her warmed Daily Banana pyjamas were on her body, she went back downstairs checking the time to find it was an hour before curfew, enough time to get a warm cocoa at the kitchens, and to visit Daisy. She pulled on a pair of beat-up pink slippers and climbed out of the common room door.

Over the past week since meeting her, she'd begun to really take a shine to little Daisy. She was sweet and mild-tempered, and knew a surprising amount about the world for being so young. She was a wonderful conversation, and was quite a brave little house elf. She wasn't even afraid of calling Cassie by her first name, which she thought was very daring for a house elf. House elves usually didn't do such things, and when Daisy had first done it, the other house elves around her had tittered and disapproved.

She entered the kitchen, and Daisy beamed and called out to her.

The house elves were used to her now, and they knew that she liked to either serve herself or let Daisy serve her, so the rest left her alone.

She sat down at the house table that was nearest the station where Daisy was working, and the elf brought her an éclair and a steaming mug of cocoa, and they chatted as Daisy washed dishes, talking about trivial things and giggling about jokes.

At the chiming of a clock, Cassie burst upwards and apologized for having to leave. It was curfew and she really didn't want another detention.

She sprinted through the halls, diving behind statues and into closets when necessary until she entered the Slytherin common room, having successfully avoided detention.

Inside it was dark, the only light coming from the red burning fire in the grate, casting a warm glow on all the dark furniture and onto the face of the room's only occupant.

At the sound of the door opening and closing, Tom turned his head to look at her and she smiled slightly, waving. She made her way over to where he sat on the couch in front of the fire, and sat on the rug, her back settling against the seat of the couch.

He turned back to the fire, drinking something from a mug.

Cassie couldn't help but remark that he look so much for friendly and (she gagged mentally to think it) handsome in the warm glow of a fire. For lack of something to do, she studied his face, taking note of every detail.

"Checking me out again?" he asked her.

She turned crimson, but the firelight made it impossible to tell. She furrowed her brow angrily.

"No, I'm just taking in the details of your face. For example, did you know that the bridge of your nose sticks up a tiny bit? My dad used to say that every detail in a person's face can tell you everything about them."

He raised his eyebrows and tilted his head towards her, interested.

"Really?"

"If you study hard enough...But I was never good at that kind of thing...My Father was the one who was good at that. He could look at you and tell you your likes, dislikes and life story" she sighed slightly, remembering, "He was a wood-worker. He used to carve me little figurines and tell me their stories..." she trailed off, refusing to tear up in remembering that she no longer had her figurine.

Tom was silent for a long time.

"What's it like, having parents?" he asked bluntly.

She suddenly remembered he had none, and lived in an orphanage. She felt a slight pang of guilt run through her at mentioning hers, but she answered him none the less.

"Well, it's like having someone that you know will always love you, and knowing you could always turn to them for help on anything."

He inclined his head, thinking.

"Hm...Well, It's getting late. I'm off to bed" he said quietly.

She nodded and rose, walking to the girls dormitory stairs and turning.

"Thanks Tom" she said simply, and walked up the stairs.

_A/N: Righto then, you lot. That's the ninth chapter down!Review pleaso cheeso. By the way, in the story at this point in time, it's about the fourteenth of December._


	10. An Unfortunate Stampede

_A/N: YAY CHRISTMAS WITH CASSIE._

"Can anyone tell me all the signs of a werewolf?"

A few hands lifted into the air, but Cassie's was not among them. It was the last day of classes before she went home. The last day of classes until Christmas break. She felt giddy, and unreasonably happy. She wanted to scream carols from the astronomy tower and dance to old rock n' roll Christmas hits on the way to class. The Christmas Holidays had always made her terribly excited and hyper, and this year was no exception.

Kelly giggled at her as she enthusiastically sang a chorus of Jingle Bell Rock, adding silly little dance moves and twirls at random intervals, making their way slowly through the crowds heading for lunch in the great hall. With a round of jazz hands at the shrilly-sung finale, she slid through the large wooden doors, a dorky grin from ear-to-ear plastered onto her face. As people were beginning to stare, Kelly dragged her friend over to the Hufflepuff table where the wonderfully smelling food was placed dutifully upon the table.

Now, Hufflepuffs weren't usually very fond of Slytherins, but through six years of witnessing various embarrassing and utterly strange actions from the short, black haired Prefect whom was obviously not wanted at her _own_ table, they eventually took pity on her and allowed her to sit at their table and eat when Kelly was around.

Though she'd never tell Kelly, it slightly stung the Slytherin in her that she had to be pitied by Hufflepuffs. Stuffing these dark thoughts aside, Cassie decided to turn her attention into another sort of stuffing, namely, her face. She grabbed a pork-chop and began to chomp the meat off of the bones happily, successfully getting half of it on her lap.

When dinner was over, Headmaster Dippet rose to stand at the staff table. He called the students in the hall to order, and when they all finally were quiet he cleared his throat.

"Good evening, students. Now for this year's Christmas break, we have a few changes. Because of the war, over the Holidays Hogwarts is going to be a place where injured and recovering auror's can go to heal and spend Christmas with their families. Since Hogwarts is being used for the honourable cause, the students who are on the list to stay over break now must go home instead. If there are any issues about a place to stay, simply let myself or a teacher know and we'll help you arrange something. That is all."

After this speech ended and everyone began to get up and go to their common rooms, Kelly turned to Cassie with an excited expression.

"Oh yeah!" she exclaimed to her as they rose from their seats, gathering their things, "I forgot about my mother telling me that! She told me Dad would be staying here, so it looks like I'm not going very far!"

Kelly's father was a top Auror at the Ministry. He was well-known for his expanded magical ability and humorous comments even in the darkest of times. He was awarded a metal the past month for saving a group of kidnapped Muggleborns from Grindelwald's forces. He was injured badly, but Kelly had been happy to hear that he was recovering well. Though the Muggle portion of this horrific war had ended, Grindelwald was still running loose and the Muggles still had stray fights and war-aftermath to deal with.

* * *

The next morning found Cassie awake bright and early, packing her things into her trunk as she hummed tunelessly. Outside the snow fell merrily to the ground, heightening her sense of holiday cheer. She was wrapped in her favourite sweater, a purple one that her Grandma knitted when she was younger that held the design of a butterfly in yellow yarn on the back. When she was first presented it, it hung over her like a giant cape or a dress that fell to at least mid-shin. Since she never really grew all that much, it fell to about mid-thigh and was still as baggy and comfortable as ever. She wore on her legs a long, pink swing skirt with baggy pyjama pants beneath.

After all her things were packed, she tugged on her overlarge hiking boots and grasped the handle of her trunk and tugged it down the stairs. With every step her feet clunked and her trunk banged, causing a couple of students in the common room to give her annoyed looks once she reached the bottom. She gave apologetic looks, and continued to lug her trunk out of the portrait hole.

Most people didn't take their trunks home with them for Christmas break, but Cassie always did. It gave her time to clean it out and replace whatever needed replacing. She walked leisurely down to the main floor, placing her stuff in the pile of trucks and belongings by the front door that students wanted to take home with them. Then she skipped off to the great hall, the smell of breakfast calling to her.

After managing to devour her body mass in food, the time for leaving Hogwarts was fast approaching. Everyone was piling up in the main entrance, waiting for the O-Kay to start heading down to the train. Cassie grabbed one last thing from her trunk (her schoolbag that held many books to keep her entertained on the long train-ride) then thrust herself into the throng. Just as she was finding a comfortable waiting spot marginally near the front doors, a voice called out.

"Alright, then, off you go! Happy Christmas everyone!"

Like a tidal wave, the students walked forwards, pushing and thrusting the lone Cassie out of the way before she even had a chance to blink. In the fray, her bag was nearly ripped off her shoulder, sending her shooting to the ground painfully. The immense crowd of students eager to get home increased now, the late ones joining in and, because of her size, No one really noticed her until they were nearly stepping on her. This was why she hated crowds. She was that small that in a large, fast moving group of people, they wouldn't notice if she was on the ground. Being used to this sort of thing happening, she simply put her hands over her head to protect herself and waited for it to stop.

Suddenly, a hand clutched hers tightly and pulled her upwards.

As soon as she was standing, she stayed extremely near her saviour whom the tidal wave of students walked around. She was saved, and by the looks of the worn, hand-me-down school jumper, by Tom.

"Thank you..." she said breathlessly grateful, "I was gonna get stepped on in there!"

She let out a relieved sigh, then re-adjusted the strap on her bag.

He inclined his handsome head to her, than gestured for her to follow him now that they were in behind the bulk of the students.

They climbed into one of the last crowded carriages, forced very close side-by-side a gaggle of silly third years that talked behind their hands and cast longing looks in Tom's direction. Since the carriage was so filled, she was forced painfully between Tom's side and the carriage wall, her cheek flattening against the window.

Finally, half-way through, she gave up and leaned Tom's way instead, letting her cheek be pressed against his shoulder. It was quite a deal more comfortable, and at least his jumper was pleasantly warm as opposed to the cold glass of the window.

The little third years cast her scandalized looks that she would do such a thing as lean against _their_ future husband, but she simply replied by immaturely sticking out her tongue and adding a rude hand gesture to match. Then a scheming little thought bubble floated across her mind and she giggled evilly, bending up and kissing Tom's cheek lightly. Gasps rang out from the gaggle of silly little girls, and they gave her looks that one would mostly reserve for something putrid they found at the back of the fridge.

Tom slowly turned to her and gave her a weird look, but she brushed it off, squashing her cheek into his school jumper once more.

The moment the carriage pulled to a stop at Hogsmeade station, Tom and Cassie made to get out quickly. The third year girls were beginning to wear on both of their nerves and they both decided it certainly would not look good for them to be found in a carriage with a group of strangled girls.

After Cassie quickly went to go check her trunk, she rejoined Tom in the line waiting to get onto the train. Once they were finally on the train, she grabbed an empty compartment and made herself comfortable, putting her bag on the floor and gleefully grabbing her newest book and gluing her eyes to the pages eagerly.

There came a cough from across her.

She looked up from her book, puzzled to see Tom still there. He smirked.

"You reading is all the entertainment I'll have on this long train-ride?"

She blinked.

"Well no...I just thought you'd go off to your Pureblood buddies is all."

He shook his head slightly, disagreeing with her.

"Well, as _amazing_ as they promote themselves to be, they're not the brightest bunch, nor the best conversation. So for this train ride, you get to be blessed with my presence instead."

"Oh goodie", Cassie said, rolling her eyes but smiling anyway.

Cassie wasn't very good with conversation starters anyway, so she simply picked her book back up again and began to read. She was rudely interrupted though by a small _"Hm!" _of remark. Glare in place, she looked back up to him.

"You're reading _The Incomplete Enchanter_?" he asked her, having a hard time keeping the surprise from his voice.

"Yes, it's a great book!" she said, smiling.

"But...It's a Muggle book..." he said haltingly, seemingly not wanting to admit that he read such things as Muggle books.

"I know...My mum is a Muggle, you know" she said laughing, "she and I live in an old farmhouse just outside of a Muggle village called Ottery St. Catchpole! It's a lovely place...We've got lots of farm animals and mum makes us money by selling milk and crops in the village. We don't make an amazing amount of money, but enough to feed us and keep us warm" Cassie smiled warmly, remembering her home.

Tom looked almost...entranced in her description of her house, so she continued.

"The farmhouse is really big, and my father and I painted it sunflower yellow when I was small. The paint's starting to peel now though, so I guess I should re-paint it soon. The barn we painted red, and we have an old, cranky riding horse called Tessa, two cows called Bessie and GeeGee, and the old Border Collie called Shamus. Then there's the army of evil chickens that I have to feed all the time" she grimaced.

He smirked at her distaste, but his expression fell and became solemn when he began to answer her.

"It sounds like a lovely place to live" he told her quietly.

When the train pulled into King's Cross Station, Cassie hurried this time to grab her things and be rid of the masses of students. Tom followed closely in her wake, making sure that nobody tried to bowl her over like last time. Once he helped her get her trunk, they migrated away from the crowds to the back wall to wait.

Suddenly, a tiny little girl in a pink dress ran up to Cassie and hugged her legs with all her might. She looked down surprised, but when she saw the blonde hair, she recognized her in a second.

"Kali!" she said excitedly, picking up her little three-year-old niece and hugging her tight, "How are you?"

"Goodie!" Kali yelled with a smile.

Cassie laughed and ruffled her hair.

"Where's my mummy at?"

"I'm right here" said a voice.

Cassie's smile widened, and she leant in to hug the woman in front of her.

"It's great to see you, Cassie" Kara Smith told her daughter.

Then she spotted Tom.

Kara raised her eyebrows in a rather embarrassingly suggestive manner towards him, then turned her head to her daughter, jerking a thumb in his direction.

"Is he yours? I hope so, Cassie, cause _damn! _Youre good looking, boy. "

Cassie buried her crimson coloured face in her hands, shaking her head. When she finally had the courage to look up, she looked despairingly at her mother.

"_Moom! _What if I wasn't even _know _the guy and you said that" she sighed "His name's Tom Riddle and no Mom, he's not my boyfriend."

Tom watched the whole exchange with humour dancing in his eyes. He had to try very strongly not to snicker at Ms. Smith's very suggestive comment and Cassie's reaction.

"Well, Tom, if you ever want to pop by, our door is open" offered Kara Smith graciously.

Tom thanked them kindly, then turned and walked across the station.

_A/N: Okay...This chapter was a little weak...But I PROMISE! The next chapter will be better!  
Review please!_


	11. Unfortunately Drunk

_A/N: YAY FORTY REVIEWS! 333 LOVE YOU ALL DO DEAATH! Ahem. Anyway! ON WITH THE SHOW!_

_OMG! I JUST WATCHED THE TRAILOR FOR HBP. LIL' TOM IS SOOO CUTE! EEEE!_

_When I mention the book 'The Catcher in the Rye' I'm sorry for the inaccurate publish date. It was first published in 1951, not in the forties...But I couldn't think of any other book that would suit Tom nicely. XDD Sorry again for the inaccuracies._

The week before Christmas seemed to fly by, and suddenly it the day before Christmas Eve. Cassie had put off her shopping till the last minute (as usual), and so Sunday the 23rd found her wandering about Diagon Alley, bargaining and searching for the perfect gifts. It was snowing lightly, large, fat flakes merrily falling from the sky, and everywhere she looked there were lights and strings of garland. Happily sung carols hung in the air, and a feeling of excitement enveloped the people all wrapped in scarves and coats, their cheeks red from the chilly air. It was beginning to get dark, and the heavy bags were beginning to hurt sitting on her arms. But she couldn't leave yet; she had one last present to buy.

The present was for Mr. White. He was a lonely old man that lived across the way, in a little white cottage with a long walkway leading up to it. Nobody understood why she got him a present every year, she just did. He had certainly never bothered with anyone else, but for some reason she felt obligated to buy him a gift, ever since she was a child. She knew he appreciated it, though. And for some reason, it was the best part of Christmas for Cassie Smith. Buying this old, lonely man a simply present and leaving it on his doorstep.

Then it caught her eye; the perfect gift for him.

It was a simple little stone, red in colouring and slightly chipped on one end. From her observations, she knew he adored small interesting rocks, so she didn't hesitate to buy it, not caring that it was a little past her budget. She carefully pocketed the stone after paying the cashier, wrapping it in some tissue to keep it safe.

Her shopping finally done she exited the shop and turned the corner, heading for the Leaky Cauldron where her mother was waiting for her. Though her mother was a muggle, she certainly wasn't afraid of wizards. When Cassie went to Diagon Alley to buy her school things every year, her mother tagged along and learned as much as she could, shamelessly asking the wizarding folks around her questions. Some gave her dirty looks because they could tell she was a Muggle, but the response usually sent them running. Normally a rude hand gesture or a long string of raunchy profanities.

This was why Cassie often left her Mother in one place while she went and did her shopping. As much as she loved her mother, she could be terribly embarrassing to be with.

Suddenly, she collided painfully with someone, sending her bags flying.

The person she ran into gave a grunt and stopped, looking up to her with angry eyes. Cassie let out an angry snarl, before she realised with a jolt just who she bumped into.

"Oh, Tom! Hey! How's it going?" she asked, smiling slightly.

He paused, and raised his eyebrows, recognizing her.

"Pretty good, I suppose...What are you doing out this late?" he asked her, almost quietly, bending down to retrieve her bags from the ground.

"Oh, just some last minute shopping..."she trailed off when she noticed Tom was pulling something in behind him. A sled, she realised, with a large fir tree on top of it. Two blobs of gray coloured fabric that were sitting just inside the tree's branches tried to stifle their laughter as they noticed her looking at them.

Two children sat up and smiled, giggling as they made funny faces. Tom saw her eyes looking past him and gestured to them, introducing them as Amy and Jack.

Cassie bent down to one knee, a warm smile twisting the corners of her lips.

"How are you two?" she asked kindly.

"Good!" they answered in union, "We're just out with Tommy gettin' the tree!"

They nodded enthusiastically, and giggled again.

"I see that!" Cassie said, laughing. She then straightened up, and faced Tom.

"Well, it was good seeing you..." she smiled awkwardly, and waved, taking back her bags that he'd picked up for her. She started across the street towards the Leaky Cauldron, but for some reason, her feet stopped moving. She stood there for a good five seconds before her body turned her around and began to write up directions on a piece of paper. Again, her body forced her a little ways down the road, and her finger was tapping on his shoulder before she could blink.

"Here.." she said, her voice barely above a whisper. She shoved the note into his hands, her face crimson. Then, like a robot, she turned and walked across the road.

"Tommy's got a giiiiiirlfriend..." the little children sang tauntingly.

* * *

The train dropped Tom off at a tiny station in the village of Ottery St. Catchpole.

The village was small, and only had few shops; the buildings mostly humble houses and cottages. He took a moment to peek at the slip of crumpled paper in his palm before continuing up the road. He was walking a good half hour before he came to a stop at the end of the long, snowy dirt road.

There, on top of a large hill, sat a sunflower yellow house with a large red barn right beside it.

He paused, staring at the place with an unexplained feeling of nervousness before he forced himself to walk up the winding driveway, his hands clenched in his pockets. When he reached the house, he was hit with just how big it actually was, parts and rooms seemingly added on throughout the years to make it nearly gigantic, and just a little shambling. The main part of the house rose high in the air, the slanted roof covered with greying cedar shingles. A couple of added pieces surrounded it, each one with a distinctively different type of window, then on the left side, a circular tower-sort of piece jutted upwards into the sky. The front door was obviously just for decoration, the bare branches of what would be shrubberies in the summer grew wildly over the front path. The dirt road widened towards the back, so he followed it.

Around back was a large deck that wound around the sides of the house, lawn chairs filled with snow stacked in one corner, reading to use again in the spring. The yard back here was immense, a couple of sheds here and there and the red barn in the distance. The chickens clucked around him, pecking at the road, and a tethered horse a little ways away whinnied at him impatiently. Suddenly, there was a booming bark from behind him.

A giant brown and white collie came bounding towards him, looking like Christmas had come early. When he reached Tom, his tail wagged at fifty miles an hour and he jumped up and whined happily. Tom's hands retracted from his pockets and scratched the dog's ears roughly, begging him silently to be quiet and calm down. The dog's tongue lolled out and he panted in pleasure loudly. Tom tried to silence him, wracking his brains for the dog's name when a shout came from the porch door.

"Hello?" came the voice of a slightly tipsy-sounding woman.

He straightened up and walked towards the door, putting his hands behind his back and wringing them tensely.

"Er...Is Cassandra there?" he asked quietly, licking his lips. He wasn't used to visiting people in their homes. He didn't know how to act.

The woman, who he recognized as Kara, Cassie's mother, scrutinized him for a moment, before a look of comprehension dawned on her face.

"Ooh, it's Tom! Well come in, dear, outta' the cold..." he tried not to grimace as she grabbed his arm 

roughly and pulled him inside.

Inside, it was warm. And loud. His eyes widened.

People were everywhere. Older folks laughed in the sitting room, little kids ran around chasing each other, uncles and aunts and any sort of relation was sitting around in the house, dancing, talking, laughing, drinking, playing the piano. They helped in the kitchen and sat on the stairs, taking up nearly every bit of the downstairs floor. It was something of the likes he'd never seen.

Kara Smith waited for him to slip off his boots before grabbing his arm gruffly again and dragging him right into the middle of the room. He flushed slightly, hoping it would only look like he'd just come from the cold.

"HEY EVERYBODY!" she screeched, catching everyone's attention, "This is Tom Riddle, Cassie's little BOYFRIEND!"

There came a little ripple of laughter from the crowd of people, then a responding shriek from somewhere above them interrupted.

"HE IS NOT MY BOYFRIEND!!"This caused a large bout of uproarious laughter from the surrounding people, and Cassie's mother grabbed onto his arm once more, pulling him through the throngs of people. They reached a set of wooden stairs that winded upwards, and she pointed upwards, telling him that she was in the first door to the right.

He walked up, and as he walked, the people and noise thinned out until it was barely distinguishable from a slight hum of voices. He paused in the long hard-wood floored hallway, before turning to the door he'd been pointed to. It was rather skinnier than any door he'd ever seen, and curiously he turned the knob.

His eyes were met with a wooden ladder leading up.

He blinked a few times, slowly lifting his head to look up at a small, black-haired person looking down.

She grinned.

"C'mon up."

He climbed the ladder cautiously, pulling himself up onto clean, cream coloured carpet. Carefully, he stood.

The room was painted a pretty shade of blue, the walls slanting upwards in a triangle telling him that they were in the annex of the house. Her bed seemed to be built right into the floor, the wooden frame filled with drawers. Around the room were many bookshelves, stocked full with books of all shapes and sizes.

"Well, what d'you think?" she asked him almost timidly, tapping her socked foot on the light white carpet.

"I've never seen a bedroom like it" he said simply, the corners of his mouth lifting a tiny bit.

* * *

Outside, the snow began to fall lightly. The fat, fluffy flakes landed softly on the quiet, snow-covered country side. Outdoors, all was peaceful.

Which was a complete opposite to what it was like inside.

Indoors, raucous laughter reverberated off of the walls, music blasted from instruments in the giant dining room that had been cleared of tables, and talk and chatter constantly buzzed.

It was in the large dining room where Cassie Smith was being turned and twirled about, nothing mattering to her but the melody in her ears, the heat on her face and the young, dark-haired man spinning her around.

* * *

Christmas morning was met bright and early with a crisp, cold sun that reflected off the white and untouched snow. Once the rays raised high enough to shine through her window, she flinched and tried prying her eyes open, wondering in a dazed state why her head was aching so badly. She tried lifting her head, but it felt as though someone had put a brick on her forehead. As the sun hit her open eyes, she let a little moan and immediately shut them.

After a while, she began to slowly remember the events of the night. Getting a bit drunk, dancing with Tom...then it got blurry and she shifted slightly, trying to get rid of the thing that was digging into her lower back.

After some self-convincing, she managed to pull herself sideways into what appeared to be a bit of shade from the rude morning light, and was met with a very alive, very breathing chest.

She forced her eyes open and pushed herself into a seated position, looking down.

There he was, sprawled out on her bedroom floor; the great Tom Marvolo Riddle.

His arms were up by his head, and one hand clutched loosely on a very empty bottle of fire whiskey. His normally meticulously kept dark hair was sticking up on all sides, his eyebrows raised high onto his forehead and his mouth hanging open, snoring softly. His white shirt was messy and undone, his black slacks rolled up half-heartedly to just below his kneecaps, the toes of his bare feet wiggling in his slumber.

I'm evil, she thought as she snapped a picture of him, and placing it in her drawer, trying her best not to giggle too loudly.

Then she bent down on her knees beside him and prodded his side with her index finger.

"G'morning, sunshine" she said in a loud, bright voice, "It's Christmas Morning!"

He stirred in his sleep, but kept on snoring.

"Okay, get up", she was becoming irritated now, thoughts of presents entering her mind, "Toooom. Tom. Hellooo! GET UP!"

She growled as he continued sleeping.

And promptly sit on his chest, screaming: "RUDOPLH THE RED NOSED REINDEER, HAD A VERY SHINEY NOOOOSE!"

"And if you ever saw it, you would even say it glows..." he recited faintly, lifting a hand to his surely aching head and moaning slightly, "Now could you get off?"

She complied, but stayed seated beside him, waiting for the worst of the hangover to wear off, just as it did with her.

Once he was well enough to stand, they hobbled their way downstairs, being attacked by children and cousins that were trying to show them their new toys, and sitting on an empty love seat by near the tree. Cassie's mother Kara looked like hell, but enthusiastically gave out presents anyway, smiling and laughing cheerfully.

When she saw them she put her fingers to her mouth and let out a loud wolf-whistle.

"Oooh, I hope you two were wearing clothes this morning!" she yelled, acting like a gossip-hungry school girl, "I saw those many bottles of alcohol you two ingested!"

There was a ripple of giggles and chuckles from nearby family.

Tom watched Cassie, slightly amazed as her face turned instantly crimson.

"Moom, please. Just give me some damn presents!" she said through a curtain of her black hair.

"Oh alright..." Kara sighed, passing her a green-wrapped gift.

Cassie opened it eagerly, the red leaving her face almost as instantly as it had appeared. She ripped the wrappings off almost violently to reveal a stack of thick books. The moment she saw them she squealed happily, jumping up and down in her seat and clutching the books to her chest.

"Thanks, mum!" she cried, hugging her mother tightly.

"I thought you wanted those!" Kara said, laughing softly.

"Maybe because I've been asking for them since forever!" Cassie giggled.

After Cassie opened a few more presents, she rose from the chesterfield and dove into the giant mountain of wrapped surprises and began to dig. A few muffled curses, then finally, a muffled yell of triumph and she extracted herself from the pile, sitting back down on the couch with a huff of exertion.

"Here!" she said breathlessly, placing a small wrapped box in his hand, grinning.

He looked at her peculiarly, before gently ripping apart the coloured paper and opening the top of the box. He pulled out a small rectangular book. The cover was cream, with a rough drawing of a carnival pony coloured orange. The book was titled "The Catcher in the Rye".

"I love this book", he told her, smiling. He'd read it a few times before but couldn't afford to buy a copy himself.

In her giddiness, Cassie wrapped her arms around him, squeezing him into a crushing bear-hug.

His breath hitched in his throat as a strange feeling lifted within him, amazed and happy about receiving his first real hug.

_A/N: AWWWW!! SOOO CUTE!_

_But it won't last for long... Dun dun duhhhhh._

_AGNST IS ON THE WAY! D8 OH NOES!!_

_REVIEW, OR I HOLD YOUR TOILET HOSTAGE! NO URINATING FOR YOU! D8_


	12. An Unfortunate Partnership

_A/N: Right...So it's been a trying day for me. My dog bit my sister's toe, and my mum starting going on about putting him down, I had a whole screaming match where I screeched for ten minutes, threatening to do crazy shit if my mum put my dog down. XD Welll, we're not putting the dog down now (I'd probably run away with little Buster if they were and you wouldn't get an update for awhile. XD) sooo...On with the story!  
Oh yeah, and I'm going _to be awayfor the week_ so if I don't update for awhile, that's why.  
_

The rest of the Christmas Holidays passed by quickly and all too soon, Cassie was saying goodbye and boarding the Hogwarts Express. After managing to find an empty compartment, she heaved her trunk onto the racks above the seats and fell lightly onto the comfy tartan seating with a tiny huff.

The students all bustled outside in the hall, the rumble of chatter and talk floating through the slightly open compartment door. After the movement began to slow out in the hall, a laughing, giggling blonde girl wrenched open the door and stumbled in, slamming it behind her and plopping down beside her.

"Hey, Cassie!" Kelly Abbott exclaimed cheerily.

Cassie grinned and hugged her friend excitedly.

"I thought you were staying at Hogwarts over the break!" Cassie blurted out, pleasantly surprised.

"I was, but my Dad was well enough to go home, so we spent the rest of the break at my grandmas house!" she cried happily, clapping her hands together.

"But oh my gosh, you will _never_ guess what happened!"

For the next ten minutes Cassie was forced into listening Kelly's long tirade of what terrible love triangle between her aunt and her uncle had occurred, all told in dramatic tones and complete with head-shakings and hands to her heart.

"...and then, Mark kissed her! I couldn't believe it! He had just finished telling Rebecca that he'd love to spend forever with her! Oh, I wish I had a boyfriend!" she then sighed, but turned to Cassie with alarming force.

"Sooo, Miss Smith, anything exciting happen over _your_ Holidays?" she asked, sounding like an Auror in the process of squeezing information out of a known criminal. As much as Cassie loved the girl, she was certainly a terrible gossip.

"Oh...Nothing much. Left my shopping till the last minute of course. The whole family piled into my house, just like every year...and, oh yeah! Tom came over for Christmas. "

Kelly gaped.

"_Tom? _Tom _Riddle?"_ she asked, completely agog.

Cassie reddened and shifted uncomfortably.

"Yeah...Him."

"Ohhh! What did you two do?"

"Nothing!" Cassie exclaimed defensively.

Her friend raised an eyebrow but said nothing, gesturing for her to continue.

"He came over Christmas Eve and had dinner. He stayed the night, we opened presents in the morning and he went home. That's _it."_

A wave of nervousness swept over her when she saw the mock-disappointed look that graced Kelly's pretty blonde features.

* * *

Cassie flew open her trunk and rummaged through the messy contents, grumbling and swearing softly.

Slughorn had given them an extremely difficult assignment that was due the next morning, and when Cassie had gone to tackle it, where was her Potions book?

Naturally, it was nowhere to be found.

After she successfully managed to tear apart the girls' dormitory without luck, she threw herself at her bed and screamed into her pillow, muffling the would-be terrifying shriek and kicking her socked feet against the mattress in a raging bout of anger.

Once she was calmed to a reasonable level, she kicked herself off the bed and went through her trunk more slowly this time, sifting through the tangled clothes and objects with more care.

As she moved a pink knitted sock from inside her trunk, something small and square fell onto her lap.

She paused, staring at it.

It was a small, rectangular box tied with a ribbon, a small tag attached to it reading "To Cassandra".

She blinked, the search for the elusive Potions book leaving her mind completely as she unwrapped the simple blue ribbon and pulled off the top.

A little wooden figurine of a brave looking girl, decked out for the harshest of winter conditions.

Her Father's carved figurine.

With a loud squeal, she clutched it to her chest, grabbing the box by the attached paper tag, looking for the name of the person who gave it to her.

But there was nothing there.

* * *

"And, pray tell, _why _didn't you pass your essay in on time, Miss Smith?" asked an irritated Slughorn, tapping his sausage-like finger on his oak desk.

"Well, er...Um, you see, I couldn't find my Potions text book and-"

"and the option of borrowing a friends' textbook never occurred to you?" he finished dully, raising a bushy eyebrow.

Cassie's face and neck turned crimson. That blatantly obvious option _hadn't_ actually occurred to her.

Slughorn sighed impatiently, turning his gaze back to the papers he was supposed to be correcting.

"Well, so sorry, but I told you that you only had tonight to do it. I stand by my words, and I'm going to have to fail you for this particular project."

"But Sir-" she interrupted desperately.

"No 'buts', Miss Smith! Now out of my office, and be sure to try and pass things on time in the future."

* * *

By lunchtime, Cassie was in a foul mood, stabbing her pasta with harsh pressure, screeching off of the glass plate and making a lot of people cringe or move away entirely. Her sullen murmurs were halted suddenly by someone sitting right beside her and putting their arm around her shoulders.

"Aw, cheer up, Cassie!" Kelly told her brightly, her pretty blonde hair tickling Cassie's face, "What did that poor pasta ever do to you?"

Cassie glowered, pushing her arm lightly and trying to suppress her friend's contagious smile.

"The pasta didn't do anything", she replied, digging her fork into the mound of macaroni and shoving it in her mouth, "eh fwas de blohhdy poshoons Profssher!"

"Come again?" Kelly asked, looking slightly disgruntled at her friend's terrible eating habits.

"I said: It was the bloody Potions Professor", Cassie verified after swallowing the lump of food in a loud gulp, "He wouldn't accept my essay late!"

"Well...He _did_ say that he wasn't going to accept any of them late...You can hardly blame him..." Kelly said shrugging. She always had a soft spot for 'Ol Sluggy', considering she was invited to every one of his little parties and was a member of the Slug Club. Her family went back a long time and were very prominent in the Wizarding world. Not to mention her father's well known escapades in the War, Kelly Abbott was certainly a famous person, indeed.

"...Hello, Earth to Cassandra Smith, come in Cassie..." Kelly called dully, waving a hand in front of the short black-haired girl's face.

"Huh? Oh yeah! Well...Um, looks like it's time for class again!" Cassie said her voice overly bright and her grin far too large, trying to cover up her little black out.

Kelly giggled, rising from the bench and joining her friend's short-legged stride out of the Great Hall, adjusting the bag hanging off her shoulder.

Their first class of the afternoon was Defence with the Hufflepuffs. There were few students there yet, considering they were a bit early. Kelly and Cassie leaned against the stone wall, goofing off and chattering about inconsequential things, and sharing Christmas stories.

"...Yeah, it was _sooo_ cute!" Kelly paused and a grin crept to her face, as if remembering something," Oh yeah!"

"What?" Cassie asked, sipping on some pumpkin juice she'd brought with her.

"I forgot to give _somebody_ their Christmas present!" she trilled, reaching into her bag.

Cassie clapped excitedly, managing to drop her glass of juice and spraying it all over the floor. She blushed furiously and swept down to clean it up with her wand.

"Woops, heheh..." she giggled sheepishly.

Kelly laughed heartily and handed over a small green box.

With a grin that threatened to split her face, she pulled off the lid and looked inside.

"Aww! You shouldn't have!" she cried, pulling out a pretty silver necklace with a green jewel hanging down the front.

Cassie immediately put it on, spinning around and striking a ridiculous mock-pose.

"How do I look?" she asked, jutting her lip out and imitating the models in the magazines.

"Great!" giggled Kelly, whacking her friend's nose with her finger.

The girls calmed and were silent for a moment, looking at one another's shoes before, inexplicably, they burst into fits of uproarious laughter, clutching at each other and trying desperately not to fall over.

"Green shoelaces..." Cassie managed out through gasps of glee, causing Kelly to cackle harder.

The students that were now gathered around looked at them bewilderedly, missing out on what was obviously an inside joke.

* * *

"Alright, class!" barked the voice of the ancient Defence Professor, "We're going to be practising duelling with partners today."

Kelly immediately sat closer to Cassie, shoving her school things closer to her friend's, picking her partner.

Professor Merrythought caught this and let out a short, crow-like laugh.

"Nice try, Miss Abbott, but _I'm_ going to be picking partners. Once I've assigned _everyone_ a partner, group together please. And do it _quietly_, there's no need to babble!"

A collective moan rang about the classroom, and the Professor began calling out names and making matches.

"Miss Abbott with Miss Tashia."

Kelly groaned, casting Cassie a disgruntled look. From across the room, the snobby, pig-eared Slytherin seemed to not be happy with this pairing either, casting her equally snobby friends a disgusted look.

"Mr Fairmont with Miss Marigold.."

"I bet you a sickle that I'm gonna be paired with Tom..." Cassie whispered bemusedly in Kelly's ear.

"No", she whispered back, "I'll lose!"

"Miss Smith with Mr Riddle"

"Told ya!" shouted Cassie, slightly louder than she should have.

Professor Merrythought took a moment to glare at her before continuing.

"You've always gotten paired with him, ever since first year" murmured Kelly.

"Yeah..."

"Right then. Off you go. Once everyone's with their partners, I'll count to three and then try to disarm your opponent."

Cassie picked up her short mahogany wand and walked boldly over to where Tom and his followers sat, crossing her arms and jutting her chin up at them defiantly. The others surrounding him made to spread out with their assigned partners, and Tom stood, towering over her and smirking, giving her defiant look a raised eyebrow. He waved his wand and moved some desks out of the way, clearing some room in the already crowded classroom.

"Step a good five feet or more away from your partner, and on the count of three..."

Cassie gazed at Tom determinedly from six feet away; him responding by smirking wider.

"One..."

Cassie licked her lips, readying herself.

"Two..."

Tom extended his wand and took his other hand out of his pocket.

"Three!"

The cry of 'three!' was muffled by shouts of spells, jinxes and curses alike as the sixth years battled to disarm their opponents. Swinging wands and screaming mouths were everywhere, causing bodies to be thrown against the walls and to the floor. Some were writhing and some wands were flying out of hands, hitting others and knocking them out.

Once the usual noise was over with, everyone turned to Cassie and Tom.

They hadn't cursed each other yet.

People backed against the walls as they circled round each other, like cats, staring into each other's eyes, daring one another to make the first move. The room got quiet as the crowd waited, watching interestedly to find out who would fall.

"_Expelliarmus!" _they cried in union.

The class gazed over each of their shoulders as both of their wands flew from their hands and hit the wall, clattering to the stone floor with loud definition in the quiet room.

The Professor gave a little 'Ho, ho!' and rounded on them with a grin.

Cassie was stunned.

Even though he had disarmed her as well, she was still shocked all the same.

She had managed to disarm him.

She had managed to disarm the great Tom Marvolo Riddle.

The class erupted into waves of chatter as the Professor walked over to them both and awarded twenty House Points to Slytherin, ten each.

When the teacher dismissed them Cassie gathered her books in an ecstatic daze, a goofy grin stretching her cheeks stupidly, causing Kelly to burst into peals of cackling laughter. As she headed out the door with Kelly giggling in her ear, she caught Tom's eye.

His dark eyes were cold, and a stony frown had settled itself into his handsome features.

_A/N: DUN DUN DUUUH.  
Wow, sorry for my plot being like: ...  
OBVIOUS CLICHE PLOT IS OBVIOUS._

_And so the angst begins...Kukukukukukuuu._

_OMG LOLOLOLOL REVEIEW. (Fail.)_


	13. An Unfortunate Fear

_A/N: Whee, okay! Tis the 13__th__ chapter, it is. My hands smell like dog food for some reason, and summer's almost over. YAY SCHOOL._

The following Tuesday at breakfast found Cassie with her cheek sitting on her toast and pancakes, snoring softly and drooling all over the unfortunate tasty-looking food items. Her black hair was at its natural frizzy curl, sprawled wildly all over her head like some odd dead creature. Her school uniform was crinkly and loose, hanging off her body in a half-hearted attempt to make her appear presentable.

The unlucky second year girl that was being forced to sit beside her cringed disgustedly, trying to eat her bacon without retching it up as she watched the older girl beside her slobber all over her food, coating it with goopy, sticky saliva. Finally, the girl gave up and walked away, looking slightly green and trying with all her might not to look back.

It was like an extremely grotesque horror movie; it was so gross that you desperately wanted to look away but somehow couldn't.

The loud ringing of a bell sounded and Cassie jumped up in fright, falling backwards in a disoriented heap on the floor, her breath coming quick into her lungs as though she'd been almost murdered.

After a moment, she calmed and noticed the wet spittle spread all over her cheek, wiping it with her sleeve and grimacing at the lovely pile of food she'd managed to ruin. She feverishly grabbed her books, her mind still far off in some parallel pane of consciousness that hasn't been discovered yet.

_Thank God I've got History of Magic first..._, she thought ruefully. She'd be able to continue sleeping.

The day before, the sixth years had experienced a wave of Defence homework from Professor Merrythought. The assignments were so gruelling that she (and others, mostly boys, she noticed) had stayed up nearly all night to finish it. Apparently Merrythought wanted to show them what "Work in the real world" was all about, and had (naturally) set the due date for the next day.

Since Cassie had been falling behind on Defence against the Dark Arts assignments for nearly her whole _life_, she doubted she had room for any more failures, and so she grudgingly went to complete the giant mountain called Essay.

She'd finally finished and fallen to sleep at five-forty-six AM, her papers and books strewn about her and her uniform still on. When she heard the other girls begin to get up (they'd done most of theirs at lunch, the little sods), she opened her protesting eyes, stood, ignored the comments on her appearance, grabbed books randomly and stumbled down to breakfast in a daze. Then she'd fallen asleep on her toast.

She wasn't the only one who'd fallen into a wonderful nap by the time she sat down in History. Nearly all the boys were instantly asleep, and a handful of girls. Before she drifted off, she noted how Tom was 

perfectly fine and didn't even look phased by the horridly long essays they were assigned.

_Nerd,_ she thought lightly, then her eyelids closed and sleep ran off with her once again.

* * *

A sense of foreboding washed over Cassie's nervous mind when the time finally came to pass over her written Defence essay. With a quick, decisive flick of her wand the severe Professor summoned their work. Pieces of parchment flew from every corner of the classroom, landing in a neat pile atop her thick wooden desk. The Professor took a moment to glare around the classroom before she slapped her wrinkled hand to the table.

"So!" she barked out impatiently, "I hope you all wrote a half decent essay..."

She trailed off as if to say "Or else" then launched into a speech about Centaurs and other double-being creatures, occasionally thrusting her wand at the board, enchanting a piece of chalk to write down notes in cramped, tiny handwriting. Cassie squinted and leaned forwards, trying to decipher the first sentence before sighing softly and giving up. She was too tired for this.

Her thoughts drifted to her essay and her stomach clenched painfully. She really did hope she marked well. She really did try her very hardest, more than she ever had done in her life. She normally did alright in school, 'A's and 'E's being her norm, but for some reason she had wanted to pick up her grades in Defence Against the Dark Arts.

_I wonder if it's from disarming him..._, she thought vaguely, her gaze drifting to the long, black cloaked back of Tom Riddle. Funny that is was he who inspired her to do better. Usually they were at each other's throats...

_But that's not true at all this year, is it?,_ sniggered a voice at the back of her mind.

Cassie's face coloured rapidly.

_Ugh, shut up! We still hate each other..._she thought hotly, trailing off pathetically.

The voice didn't respond.

_Damn, now youre talking to yourself..._ she muttered very quietly into the sleeve of her school robes.

For some reason, the words her own mind had shot back at her plagued her the rest of the day. At the most inopportune moments the words repeated themselves.

_Thats not at all true..._

Whether she was eating, talking or sitting in class, they repeated themselves.

And for some reason, it bothered her.

The fact that she and her sworn enemy had put aside their differences, maybe even been _nice_ and _friendly_ to one another, bothered her. It certainly _shouldn't_ have bothered her, considering that usually when people became friendly instead of nasty is was a good thing, but for some unknown reason it ate her on the inside.

Was it because she missed their petty pranks they used to play on each other?

No, that couldn't have been it; he'd usually win and it had infuriated her.

Was it because she missed having someone to yell at?

No...His place was taken by the numerous amounts of people she yelled at anyway.

Was it because she was afraid of him?

She paused, her quill poised in the air, in the middle of writing down a little assignment given by Slughorn.

_Was she afraid of him?_ She swallowed uncertainly.

She was.

That feeling of unease, that feeling that bothered her...It was fear.

She licked her lips, her brow furrowing.

Why was she afraid?

She again swallowed the lump in her throat.

She didn't want to answer that question right now...

* * *

After much debating she managed to convince herself to skive off dinner and complete the assignment 

for Slughorn properly. Her grades in Potions certainly were nothing to brag about, and after her mother's berating voice vibrated in her head for the last time, she chose employment and money over unemployment and living in her Basement for the rest of her life.

There were a few parts of her work she wished to fix, so she went straight to the potions section, found a useful book and went looking for a sunny seat. Nothing was better than reading by a window in the sunlight. She looked round and then someone caught her eye. At the very back sitting in her favourite seat by one of the large cathedral-like windows letting the wintry sun pour down on him was Tom. It was the exact window that, months before, had fallen her father's figurine.

She smiled a little, and squashing the nagging voice in the back of her mind, she made her way over to him. She lazily pulled up a chair and plopped her work down on the table, her bottom falling into the comfy seat.

"Can I sit here?" she asked him as he flicked his dark eyes towards her.

He gave a little shrug of his shoulders and continued reading.

She grinned and busied herself with getting cozy in her chair before she began skimming through the book and scratching out and correcting things with her quill. The scritch-scratch of the quill on the parchment caused his eyes to flick once more from his literature to gaze down at her work.

"Correcting?" he asked her quietly.

"Yeah... My mom says that if I don't pick up my grades in Potions that I'll end up unemployed and living in our basement for the rest of my life, possibly spending my time knitting scarves for the homeless people and living off the occasional can of soup she'd chuck down the stairs at me."

She nodded, willing her face to look solemn.

He raised an eyebrow, smirking.

For some reason, she got the feeling he was smirking in agreement, not humour.

With an angry jolt, she recognized that condescending smirk.

She furrowed her brow, looking into his eyes.

"What? It _was_ a joke you know..."

"I know..." he said, seemingly catching himself and a tiny, but quite _fake_ smile replacing the smirk.

She paused and looked at him for a little while longer before sighing and continuing on with her work.

She must've imagined it.

_A/N: Oooh, someone who's named Mot Olovram Elddir is jealous. Tut tut, GET OVER IT TOMMY. She SORT OF beat you at ONE tiny thing. What a spazz. shakes head_

Review. Do it. I have all your chocolate and candy and I'm holding them for ransom.  
Review and you may get to see your sweets again someday...Muahahahaha! (cough splutter)


	14. An Unfortunate Gaggle

_A/N: WOOHOO, READERS! READY TO DANCE?! (is singing "Dance Like an Idiot" by Lemon Demon)_

_Put your hands on your knees and hobble to the right,  
Then do a 360 with your eyes shut tight  
While you're dizzy get busy and pretend you're a mime  
then make whiney noises and clap five times  
Hold out your arms, start running in place  
try to do the Moonwalk and fall on your face  
Get up and stomp around like a big fat lummox  
Then jump out the window with your hands on your buttocks!_

_Yay Lemon Demon. They're the coolest. : D_

_UNRELATED AND USELESS FUNFACT FOR THE DAY: The band "Lemon Demon" is by the same person who did Potter Puppet Pals! : D YAY, so it is SORTA connected, at least to the Harry Potter universe..._

_ANYWAY. Enough dancing, and more fanfiction! : D_

_"YEAAAAAAAAHHHERRRGGGGGH!!"_

Nearly every student and a good handful of teachers jumped in alarm, looking around frantically for the person who was surely being terminally injured in some horrific and gruesome way.

But as it so happened, it was not a cry of pain, nor was it a scream of terror.

Cassie had gotten 95 on her Defence Essay.

With a face splitting grin she hurled herself into the Great Hall, performing a rather frightening and horribly coordinated dance of happiness around the Hall, while Kelly Abbott pranced behind her chanting "You diiiiid it, you diiiiid eet, yeah, yeah, you diiiiiiid it, WHOO!"

Most of the students and teachers had sat back wearily in their seats again, some still watching her intently to make sure she was simply exuberant and not completely mad. It was needless to say that it had fallen pretty silent in the Hall, nearly everyone now staring at her as if she were going to sprout an extra arm on her face or something of the like.

After Cassie sat down with Kelly and began to shovel food into her mouth, the talk in the Great Hall began to slowly start up again, and Kelly patted her friend on the back.

"Good for you, you didn't fail!" her friend shouted in sarcastic happiness.

"Aw, shu' hup" Cassie mumbled through her mouthful of food, swatting her friend on the arm lightly.

* * *

After what was dubbed by Kelly as the 'Smith Happiness Incident' that evening, the two friends headed up to the Astronomy tower, night's blanket having already fallen on the Scottish hills. It was a Friday night, and the girls had shed their school uniforms already. Cassie's far-too-big woollen sweater swished back and forth in time with her steps as they climbed the stairs, chatting about trivial things and exchanging the odd story. Once they reached the top, they threw out the blanket they'd lugged along with them on the stone floor and sprawled out on it, taking from their pockets small candies and the like.

"I wish Ridge would notice me..." groaned Kelly, munching on a sucker, "He's soooo hot."

"Is that all you think about, Kelly? Whether or not they're attractive?" sighed Cassie, "You know, there's other parts to men-"

"Like their penises" cut in Kelly slyly.

"..Like their personalities, qualities, trustworthiness..." continued Cassie, pretending as if she didn't hear her friend speak.

"You think too much, Cassie. C'mon, there must be one guy that you like...Even if it's just for their looks...One guy..." Kelly grinned, twiddling her index finger on her friends slowly reddening cheek.

"There's no one" Cassie said firmly, though her blotchy red face betrayed her.

Traitor!, she thought angrily to her body.

"Oooh, I don't think so!" trilled Kelly, pinching her heated cheek, "You liiiiike someone, don't you!"

"No I don't!" she yelled desperately.

"Yes you doooo, tell me!"

"No!"

"Tell meeeee!"

"Godammit, FINE!"

Kelly giggled uncontrollably at the prospect of a juicy new gossip discussion.

"Jesus H Christ, you're mental, woman!" Cassie moaned, pouting slightly and shaking her head.

"Well, who is it?"

Cassie sighed.

"Sam DuPrau" she mumbled, turning bright red.

Kelly's face alighted.

"Oooh, that sexy seventh year from the Ravenclaw Quidditch team?"

"Yeah..." sighed Cassie lightly, smiling at her friend.

"And here I was thinking you had a thing for Tom Riddle!" she giggled, "Good choice though; Sammy is yum-mee!"

"Of course you'd know" bit Cassie, grinning.

"Hey!" gasped Kelly, pulling a mock-affronted expression.

As the two giggling girls tickled each other senseless, Cassie prayed to all the Gods of every religion in thanks that she was a good liar and that Kelly was extremely gullible.

* * *

"Copy down what it says on the board please, and kindly don't dawdle..." drawled the blonde Charms Professor boredly, as though he'd rather be anywhere but there.

Cassie dragged her bag towards herself, extracting a bit of bare parchment, a small stained pot of ink and a worse-for-wear quill. Laying the yellowing paper in front of her on the worn desk, she flicked open the inkpot and dipped the tip of her small feather inside. She licked her lips and wrote her name and year in the top left-hand corner, as was instructed on the chalkboard, then set out copying the questions and facts written there. After a good twenty minutes of scribbling, the teacher called their attention again.

"Alright then. Do questions four and five and have it in to me by Monday" the bell rang loudly, signalling the end of the day and the start of the weekend, "Dismissed"

Cassie shoved the paper, pen and inkbottle unceremoniously into her bag then, slinging the bag over her shoulder, walked out of the classroom to join the throng of students headed downwards. In the sea of slowly moving students she spotted a familiar, tall black haired person, by the right-hand corridor wall, moving with slow, deliberate steps. A little smile appeared on her pink lips and, having nothing else better to do, set off in his direction.

Once she was directly behind him, she lifted her index finger and stood on her tippy-toes, tapping him ever so lightly on his black-robed shoulder. He paused and turned around, a very slightly dazed look on his face. She looked from him to the thick book in his hands, her smile widening.

"Lost in book land, are we?" she asked him, standing once again on the tips of her toes to try and decipher the title printed in small black letters at the bottom of the page.

"Hm? Yes, I suppose so..." he said quietly, managing to compose himself.

"Whatcha readin' now?" she asked, rocking back on her heels and looking back up into his dark eyes.

"'The Dictionary of Dark Terms and Objects' by Marcus Hilcanfroy" he replied simply, reaching in his robes pocket and pulling out a small slip of paper and marking his page. He closed the book with a small 'snap' and dropped it in his bag.

"Now" he said, perching the bag once again on his shoulder, "What did you want?"

"Oh, nothing..." she pushed a bit of flyaway hair from her face, pushing it behind her ear. She'd begun to wear her hair down more often now, finding that is was easier than trying to tame it.

"I just wanted to say hi, really" she waved her hand dismissively, feeling her cheeks redden for unknown reasons.

"I see..." he said, his voice measured and quiet, "Well...Sorry to say, but I've got homework to do...Goodbye, Cassie."

"Bye!" she exclaimed as he turned away from her and made his way down the hall, waving lightly.

"OHMYGOD, CASSIE YOU LOVE TOM RIDDLE! CASSIE LOVES TOM RIDDLE! CASSIE LURRRVES TOM RIDDLE!" bellowed a screeching voice from behind her.

"_WHAT_?!" screeched Cassie, spinning around and drawing her wand from the inside of her robes, her face scarlet and poised to curse the living daylights out of the offending person.

A group of fellow Sixth Year girls bent over in howls of laugter, holding their sides and clutching at each other for support. One of them, a blonde girl that Cassie dubbed "Fellow Sixth Year Whore" tried desperately to say something else but her screeching giggled stopped her from making a full sentence. All Cassie got from her were the words "Tom" "crush" and "Obvious".

Cassie threw the dirtiest look she could muster at the girls, before storming off, her face still crimson, in the direction of the library.

_A/N: It's finally done. : D Sorry for taking so long, you see I was abducted by Alien life forms who claimed that I stole their breakfast, and therefore spent a lot of time trying to persuade them that I really don't like eggs, and so why would I eat their breakfast?_

_They eventually let me go after I made them omelettes, but I tell you, I learned a lot more about the Universe and life from them then I've ever learned here on Earth._

_Review, or I shall call up my Alien friends and they shall steal your brain._


	15. An Unfortunate Potato

_A/N: OH MY GOODNESS! I AM RUNNING THROUGH A FIELD OF PLOT BUNNIES FOR THIS STORY RIGHT NOW! YAY! I'VE DECIDED HOW ITS GOING TO END! KUKUKU. Ahem. Now...To the story! (God knows you've deserved the update; I haven't updated in a dog's age!)_

Cassie flipped through the pages of _Pride and Prejudice_ the words echoing loudly in her mind but no making impact. She was deep in thought, thinking blindly about everything and nothing while idly turning the thin, browned pages between her thin fingers. The little inked words stood out like the moon on a black night. If she blurred her eyes, the paragraphs almost took the form of little pictures, etched blindly into the paper while trying to convey another message, not thinking about what other things that the words could form.

Cassie was curled comfortably onto one of the Slytherin armchairs, her hair braided into two messy plaits, her body swathed in warm pink flannel pyjamas and her feet covered by wool knitted socks, courtesy of her grandmother Tessie. The armchair she currently occupied was feet away from the glowing fireplace, because although it was March, snow had come crashing down on the students of Hogwarts, forcing them from their spring clothes and back into their winter one's. As usual, the Slytherin common room was freezing, as it was whenever it snowed. Cassie had spent the entire afternoon adding logs to the fire and layers in turn to herself, when finally, at eleven when all the other students had gone to bed, it was comfortably cozy and warm. There were no lights on, save for the crackling fire.

It was pointless to hold the book any longer; she wasn't really reading it. She reached over with her short arms and placed in onto the side table, curling quickly back into her original position to make sure that she didn't lose any heat. She sniffed and looked around her. Memories of when she'd woken up one night and come to downstairs to find a thoroughly ill Tom Riddle came floating back to her. She smiled slightly, revelling in the warm feeling that spread throughout her body. Another time when they'd gotten stuck outside in the rain flooded back to her, and her grin widened, remembering fondly some of the adventures she'd shared with him.

* * *

In the morning, after the snow had finally run its course, a crisp white layer of the stuff lay over everything. Other than being absolutely freezing, it was a fine morning. The sun glinted off the icy crusted snow, causing it to sparkly in a way only snow can sparkle. Currently, Cassie was making her way along with a motley crew of fellow sixth years through said snow, their faces a blotchy red from the chilling wind that scratched along their faces with cruel talons.

The greenhouses were all the way at the back of the school, and she didn't blame the half of them that skived the class. They would probably just end up sitting in the deep-freezer like plant shelters, shivering like mad and not being able to pay attention to the Professor's loving lecture about the affects of Flesh-Eating Slug repellent. They probably wouldn't be able to hear him over the roar of the wind anyway.

* * *

It didn't take long for them to decide that it was better the class be held inside the castle. As half the class was missing anyway, they didn't do very much, and when the bell rung for lunch, Cassie hastily made her way to the Great Hall where she hoped a great vat of hot soup was waiting for her.

She wasn't disappointed.

A hearty beef stew swam deliciously in her bowl and she sloshed it around with her spoon, breathing in the curling steam that wafted heaven-like from the silver plate. Licking her lips self-indulgently, she took a heaving spoonful of the wonderful concoction and placed it in her mouth. It was at just the right temperature, very warm, but not hot enough to burn. Its warmth carried itself straight from her mouth down, down, to her stomach where it pleasantly heated the rest of her body. She smiled, and grabbed a piece of bread, buttering it and dipping it into the stew. The bread was even warm too! She closed her eyes and chewed slowly, taking in every flavour with gusto.

"Don't have an orgasm, now" warned a voice wryly from just beside her ear.

Her eyes snapped open and a scowl screwed her face as she turned towards the person who dare disturb her wonderful lunch.

"Oh", she said, swallowing painfully, "It's you", after the forced swallow, her voice was much more choked sounding then she would have liked, and ruined her sarcasm utterly.

Tom smirked at her, handing her a napkin and pointing to a spot on the corner of his mouth where she assumed stew remnants were now dripping. She yanked the serviette from his hand and wiped her whole mouth, placing it back down on the table and taking her glass of water and draining it in one.

There was still something she didn't like about Tom's smiles these days, but who was she to complain?

"So", she said pleasantly, helping herself to more stew, "Whot are yhoo up twoo thefes days?"

He grimaced slightly.

"Must you always talk with your mouth full?"

She swallowed roughly and sized him up, a playful pout on her face.

"Yes!" she exclaimed dramatically in her best Shakespearian voice, "I must!"

He rolled his eyes, his smirk growing again on his face.

"Well, some of us have lives to continue on with, so I'll leave you to your stew..."

"Hey! Are you insinuated that I don't have a life?"

He paused from getting up from the table.

"If you want to take it that way" he told her smirking.

She flung a bit of potato at him as he walked away, and forcefully tried to reduce her hysterical laughter to sniggers as the potato bit sat stuck in his hair.

* * *

_A/N: Alright. This was a quick little chapter to show you that I'm really not dead! XD I'm not...I swear! I just got hit by a rogue bomb labelled "Reality" (EW. Reality.) and that blew up a lot of my inspiration. BUT. I've got so many plot bunnies now that I really don't know what to do with them, so the story is sure shooting from now on. I've got the very end written and everything! : D_

_I give you all permisson to send threatening messages if I don't update in time._


	16. An Unfortunate Swim

_A/N: Okay, so I'm actually updating frequently! It's crazy! I've never done this before...Actually updating. It's a wonderful new thing!_

**_EDIT: I FORGOT TO ADD WHY SHE ALMOST DROWNED. Silly me! : D Do read the end at least. It's MUCH better then before._**

Time passed. March faded into April, melting the snow, April blossomed into May, bringing with it sunshine and balmy weather. The lake was calm and cool, the cheerful sun glinting merrily off the black surface, the trees swaying lazily in the warm breeze that ruffled their branches. Little first and second years ran around the grounds in the bright green grass, wading in the water and splashing each other with delighted giggles.

_Nasty little sods._.., Cassie thought sourly.

They had already finished their exams. For some stupid reason, the teachers thought it prudent to test them at the end of May, and while they enjoyed a month's period of carefree sunshine, the older years grappled and ran around the school desperately trying to revise.

It was on one of these occasions that Cassie was sat by the window, desperately trying to listen to Professor Binn's droning speeches on some obscure subject of history and take notes at the same time. But it was nearly impossible with the little brats making so much noise outside. It was no good. She'd fail History of Magic anyway, just like everyone else in her year. When people applied for jobs, they never looked at your History of Magic mark. Possibly because they remember how boring it was, and how they failed it as well. But, other than History of Magic, Cassie was proud of herself. She was on top of all her classes for once, par with a select few excelling students in the school. She was quite excited, really, to see her NEWTs next year.

Cassie never thought she'd see the day that she was excited for school. She supposed it was from hanging around Tom too much.

Where is he anyway?Her eyes surveyed the classroom and caught the meticulously combed dark hair sitting faced front at the desk closest to the board. He was taking notes like a madman, his eyes never leaving his paper and quill but somehow getting every bit of information that floated out of the ghost-teacher's mouth. She covered her small smile with her petite hand, resting her bent elbow on the table to prop up her head.

The bell rang loudly, resounding off of the stuffy classroom. The people who'd been sleeping (needless to say, half of the class) jumped up claiming loudly that they were paying attention, while others traipsed, yawning widely, out the door. Cassie waited until most of the class was gone before she stood to gather her things neatly into her bag. Neatness was another skill she'd picked up from Tom. Though, she had to admit, her four-poster up in the girls dorm needed some attention.

After her things were securely in her bag, she walked lazily to the edge of Tom's desk where he was still gathering his books and notes. He briefly looked up to her face, nodded, and murmured something about meeting her in the hall. She shrugged.

"You won't find me in the hall, I'm eating outside. Join me if you want to, by the old birch tree" she said simply, turning her body round to walk out the door. She heard a small noise to the affirmative side from Tom's direction, so she flounced out the door of the classroom and down to the Great Hall.

* * *

Once Cassie had safely procured some lunch from the Hall, she wandered out side and sat meekly beside the old birch, its hanging branches and gigantic thick trunk looming menacingly over top of her. She shrugged off her silly feelings. Of course it towered over her. It was as old as the school, maybe even older.

With plucky enthusiasm she kicked off her shoes, swallowed the last bit of her turkey sandwich, pulled off her socks and school outer robes and promptly pranced off into the cool lakeside. The dark mud oozed between her pale toes, covering them in a sloshy, dirty film. The water was pleasantly cold to the touch of her feet, and, minding the sudden drop off, made her way slowly into deeper water. By the time she reached knee-high, she was in a patch of lake grass and water lilies, and idly she watched the frogs and tadpoles flit from shelter to shelter, the little fish swimming fast by her legs.

Fuzzy summer memories came floating lazily to her, times fishing with her cousins, playing in the stream by her house when she and her older sister were small, swinging on a tire swing into the deep pond that connected to the stream...Good memories. When she got out of school for the summer, her cousins still visited her, and they still went fishing, every year. Last year, she'd even managed to catch a good sized trout!

SPLASH!

She opened her eyes, and she could see nothing. Complete blackness, the thick pressure of water pressing hard onto her eyes. She forced her mouth closed, trying her best to spit the water out that had crawled, freezing, down her throat. She ached to gasp for air, but there was none down here. She desperately looked upwards, but it was black all around. Air, she needed air. She twisted around violently, wildly looking for the lightness that signalled the surface. But all around her was blackness. Her lungs ached. Air. She needed air.

Air.

, her body forced her mouth open in a vain attempt to suck in any oxygen, anything to keep her alive. But all she breathed in was water, black and thick and muddy in her lungs, and she forced her eyes closed, refusing to look at Death.

AIR!

* * *

A hand wrenched at the back of her sodden school shirt, dragging her unceremoniously onto the bright green grass and turning her onto her back. No breath came into her lungs. He checked her vitals. Nothing.

"Cassie..." he asked loudly of her, while he made absolutely sure that no breath was going into her lungs. He grimaced at her lack of response, and slowly lowered his head to hers...

and was pushed out of the way.

"I'll do it!" declared a pompous Hufflepuff Quidditch player, leaning down to Cassie's mouth as though she were Snow White. Tom forced his wand hand from twitching.

If you're going to save her life, now's the time to do it, not when cameras are around! He thought, agitatedly.

A weak little cough and splutter turned his attention back to the Hufflepuff and Cassie. Her eyes were blearily half-open, water pouring from her lungs with each cough. A cheer erupted from the gathered crowd, yelling things like "She's alive!" and "You saved her!"

But, over the din, he heard her mutter "Tom? Is that....you?" to the boy looming above her, grinning into the crowd. Tom saw her eyes adjust and focus to the sudden bright light.

She blinked, things still taking form. She tried prop herself into a seated position istead of lying like a broken toy on the ground, but her spine angrily protested, and she didn't have enough energy to fight back. Abandoning the notion of looking presentable, she flopped back onto the ground.

"Um...What happened?" she adressed the crowd weakly, trying not to sound too pathetic.

One of the surrounding students, a fifth year tawny-haired Ravenclaw glared over at some Gryffindor fourth years.

"_Those guys_", she said, jabbing her finger at them, "felt the need to annoy the Giant Squid. Usually, the squid dosen't get mad easily... But you should have seen them! They were throwing rocks and yelling-"

"Amanda, get to the point!" sniped a Slytherin seventh year harshly.

"Anyway", glared Amanda, "the Giant Squid was really angry. We were all avoiding the lake, but I guess since you came out later and you didn't know...The squid must've thought you'd have made a nice lunch."

Cassie could tell that the fifth year nearly had to bite her tongue from saying "In all fairness", catching the eye of that intimidating Slytherin.

"Eugh..." Cassie mumbled, closing her eyes from the glaring light that shone so bluntly down on her, possibly knowing full well that her head felt as though it were going to implode...How rude. What a mean, mean sun...She cracked an eye open, hoping to be sitting up by a tree, the whole 'Being-Mistook-As-A-Tasty-Treat-and-Nearly-Drowning' incident just a dream brought on from hours of relentless study...

But, it wasn't.

She was still lying pathetically prone on the grassy grounds of Hogwarts, a big group of curious faces staring down at her.

At least one of them had moved, and wether intentionally or not, had managed to block out the sun...

Her eyes slid in and out of focus for a moment before locking onto a familiar face.

"Sam?" she asked curiously. He wasn't who she'd expected... Her eyes slowly scanned the crowd before locking with the handsome blonde's blue eyes once again.

He smiled at her, his teeth oh-so-white, his aqua eyes sparkling, his straw-blonde hair ruffling attractively on the breeze...

She shook her head forcefully, looking shiftily to the right and hoping to hope that no one saw her unintentional fawning.

But his eyes were sooo pretty....

"Yeah?"

His voice jolted her roughly back to Earth.

"Um...Did...Did you save me?" she asked tentively, looking around once more for a certain pale, dark haired person.

"Yeah, I did" smiled the blonde.

Tom was quietly seething, but held his tongue. Slowly, he turned around and walked away through the crowd.

"Wow!" she exclaimed a little too enthusiastically, "Oh...I mean...Um...Thanks...Thanks a lot!"

She tried her best smile, taking devious care to make sure that her curly dark hair was down the side of her face in the way she liked it.

His easy smile sent her off into blissful dreamland as he reached down with his large, soft hand, clasped her tiny pale one, and lifted her to her feet.  
_

* * *

_

_A/N: Alright. So, this chapter may not be a mammoth like the previous ones, but at least I updated a chapter within like....A day or two of the previous one. I just had to do the Cassie-Almost-Drowns cliché. XD It has signifigance: it starts her and Sam DuPrau's relationship somewhat. Reviews are always appreciated. : D _


	17. A Sick, Unfortunate Parody

_A/N: DUN DUN DUN DUUUUH._

BTW, REREAD THE END OF CHAPTER 17 WHEN CASSIE ALMOST DROWNS. I IMPROVED IT IMMENSELY. PLEASE PLEASE REREAD IT.

She giggled loudly and swatted Sam on the chest, giving him a playfully reproaching finger to his chest at what he had just so blatantly suggested. They were currently holed up inside an abandoned classroom, studying the fine art of snogging with perfection when a teacher had nearly entered the room. They were forced to dive under an old, mouldy sheet to prevent getting caught and put in detention. After the coast was clear, he turned to her with a quirky grin and proceeded to tell her what exactly most people their age did when under sheets. Externally, Cassie giggled, but internally she was having a bit of a crisis, desperately bidding her face not to turn scarlet.

She squeezed her eyes shut once she was sure Sam was looking away and managed to hold the blush at bay. She was sixteen years old, not twelve!

_But this is only your first boyfriend...,_ a voice at the back of her mind sniggered rudely.

Shut up!, she shouted in her head, shaking it like a dog ridding itself of water. She refused to let those annoying voices get to her!

It was four days after the Giant Squid had mistook her for his lunch, and Sam DuPrau, (the 'Sexy Saviour', as Kelly labelled him), had asked her to be his girlfriend two days earlier.

She'd been sitting under a peach tree under the warm sun reading a favourite book of hers, when he and his crew of other handsome Quidditch players came waltzing out into the sunshine. Their appearance caused collected sighs from the surrounding girls (and from a few guys that stole sneaky glances), but they're attention was not for them. They all came walking towards Cassie and her shady peach tree on the edge of the forest, following their leader (who happened to be Sam) and all wearing the same encouraging, beautifully white-toothed smiles.

The rest of them hung back, and Sam stepped forwards. Cassie finally looked up from her book, realizing that he was actually paying some attention to her and gazed at his handsome face with doe eyes as her face turned red. She watched, excitement building like a giggly, happy disease inside her bowels as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a beautiful pink and red lily, with the words 'Wanna go out with me?' written in wonderful penmanship on a piece of paper stuck neatly between two of the petals.

Her happiness had been so great that she'd even let the bad grammar go.

With a rather screechy-sounding squeal, she leapt into his waiting arms gibbering affirmatives into his soft school jumper. At the back of her mind, she'd made note to perfect her squeals of happiness in the future.

_Wonder what else you could end up squealing for with this stud...,_ muttered The Voice evilly.

She paused and thought a moment at what her brain had just whispered. She blinked a few times, and wisely decided never to tell anyone that she talked to herself to the extent that she did.

* * *

As soon as the halls were deserted, boy and girl skittered along the walls through the dark corridors, pausing at intervals and making sure that a teacher wasn't around the corner before they continued towards their respective house dorms. A couple corners back, she'd bid Sam farewell at the portrait of the Drunk Monks down the hall from the kitchens where Hufflepuff house was situated. Now she was alone, her lips slightly puckered from her strictly wordless goodbye, and feeling rather giddy. She forced her surely manic giggles down, swallowing the wetness in her mouth until she was sure she wasn't going to burst out in fits of laughter. Then, as quick as a wink and as stealthy as a guilty child with a stolen cookie, she set off towards the dungeons.

As she passed the girls' bathroom, she noticed something bright reflecting the cavernous ceilings. She paused, looking curiously at it, before continuing forwards. As she got closer, it became clear to her exactly what it was:

Water.

It lay like a glassy coat of clear ice on the rough stones, showing Cassie the ceiling with perfect distinction as though it were a mirror. Cassie's heart slowly began to beat faster.

A toilet is just flooded, or something...¸she told herself, trying to brush it off. But she could not disperse the ominous feeling that crept like a black disease over her body, freezing her insides painfully solid.

Something, intuition perhaps, told her to not look around. That intuition told her to never look behind her, and never look at the floor. She did as her feelings bid her without question. She stared straight ahead at the wall at the end of the hall, her eyes grasping onto a burning torch and she watched the flames crackle, never taking her eyes off of it.

The tiniest of breaths sounded behind her, and every hair on her body stood up, sending a giant wave of gooseflesh passing over her now cold skin. Another breath, rougher this time sounded hollowly in the stone hall.

Her heart suddenly stopped its furious tattoo inside her chest, and along with it, her breath stopped. But even as she felt her bodily functions begin to cease, something inside her brain told her to never take her eyes off of the distant burning torch. She never did. The air was cold, and the mysterious breaths behind her sounded more frequently. She stared unblinkingly at the wall.

As suddenly as it had come, the ragged breathing became less and less pronounced, a soft squelching that sounded horribly like slithering alerting that It, whatever It was, was going away.

Suddenly, her heart began to pump warm blood rapidly to her frozen limbs, and her chest began to rapidly rise and fall with each new breath, as though it were trying to make up time for lost breaths. But Cassie couldn't move, couldn't possibly move, until the black disease of fear that had crept up from the shadows in the hall had completely deserted her.

She fell roughly to her knees, her shoes and skirt splashing in the thin pool of water. Warmth had returned to the air now.

As she tried to recompose herself, another feeling crept into her. Its voice wrapped around her mind, and said one thing, over and over again...

Check the bathroom, it whispered, check the bathroom...

She was moving before she even acknowledged it. Her body screamed at her to turn around, and run as fast as she could in the opposite direction.

_DANGER_!, it screamed, _DANGER_!

But she wasn't listening.

Inside the cold bathroom, the water lay deeper than out in the hall. One of the sink taps was broken and gushing water freely into the overflowed sink, that spilled onto the floor in a way that reminded her sickly of blood. She stepped through the ankle high water carefully, the translucent liquid seeping quickly into her shoes and the fabric of her socks.

Something told her to go and check near the stalls.

Her body moved for her, stepping towards the stalls with little effort on her part, leaving her to wonder what horrors lay there...

As she turned her head up to look down the rows of stalls her heart halted roughly in her chest for the second time.

A horrible, gut-wrenching moan of horror was echoing off of the stone walls, and it took her a moment to realize that gut-wrenching moan was her own.

There, lying on the wet floor was a tiny Gryffindor first year girl. Her hand was raised in the air, her little face screaming in terror, forever trapped in a sculptor's sick parody of a piece of art.

_

* * *

_

A/N: Well. I'm more than a little pathetic. Every time the phone rang as I was writing this, I jumped in the air about five miles. XD Pretty sad when your own story makes you jump...Well...Not really. It just means you're really into the story...-nod nod- Anyways, reviews make my day so why don't commit yourself to something as simple as writing one? Free appreciation of feeling good! Or...Whatever. : D


	18. The Unfortunate Demon

_A/N: Lots of OH EM GEE ITS A PLOT things happen in this chapter. YAY._

* * *

Cassie didn't know how long she stayed there in the girls' bathroom.

All she knew was that after the initial horror, she clamped her hands to her eyes, fell to her knees and sat there, surrounded by running water beside the sadistic statue of the small girl. She must've stayed there all night...She didn't know...All she remembered was the darkness her hands cast over her eyes and the words of her grandmother's old bedtime prayer echoing in her cracked, dry lips. When she was discovered, she was wrenched from her seated position and carried to the Hospital Wing, but never did she take her hands off of her eyes.

After the nurse had successfully managed to ease her out of her soaked uniform and into a nightgown, she ushered her to the nearest bed. Cassie lay down, all the while her hands clutching at her eyes as if they'd been burned, and the whispers of memorised words falling to her mouth until sleep took hold of her and her eyes closed for good.

* * *

Cassie stayed in hospital for a full week, in which nearly the whole school tried to visit her and find out exactly what happened to poor, innocent Abigail Waters. The nurse had, gratefully, banned all students from visiting her that week, protesting she needed healing.

And healing Cassie did need.

For the first three nights she suffered from insomnia, the little Gryffindors face swimming into her view every time she tried to close her eyes. Eventually, the nurse pitied her and administered Dreamless Sleeping Drought to her troubled patient. Cassie knew that it shouldn't have affected her this much...But somehow, it did. As though a black spectre that had been hiding in the shadows of her mind had finally reared its ugly head to show her its horrors.

It didn't help, either, when she was situated on the bed directly across the curtains that hid the stony little girl that was centered on all of her nightmares.

* * *

_June 2__nd__, 1944. Tuesday._

_She won't know. She'll never know. I am safe. She will never guess it was me._

_The way she looks at me means nothing. She's afraid I'll beat her in exams. I will._

_But she will never learn what I've done. Never._

_Will she?_

* * *

Cassie sighed.

She was _exhausted_.

Mock-exams were finally over. In two weeks, the real things began, but for the moment she could breathe a little easier.

Only to have it hitch again in her throat.

Headmaster Dippet had announced, to much dismay of the students, that two more petrified bodies had been found. Two more Muggleborns that lay frozen in their horror of what they'd seen. Their breakfast had been rightfully spoiled by this news, and now it hung over the school like a giant grey, apprehensive cloud, dampening spirits and hushing conversations. People were becoming jumpy and uneasy when they walked in the halls, keeping to large groups of friends. They began to point accusatory glances at those who were once their friends, and almost everyone was looking over their shoulders.

Again Cassie was subjected to the torment of the students badgering her with questions. None of the students did it intentionally, but they did treat her like some well to be used freely. She was the only one that had come into any vague contact and stayed conscious.

More then once, Cassie had heard whispered conversations end abruptly as she approached.

She didn't really blame them, but it was taking a toll on her. Even Kelly seemed weary of her, Sam treated her same, but she could tell he was treating her more like eye candy for his admirers then a person these days. The more she tried to ignore it, the more it bothered her. So, with no one else around to really turn to, she turned to Tom.

* * *

She finally caught him as he was walking out of Arithmancy, a subject that she'd ran away from fearfully after trying it in third year. She was feeling a lot happier than usual. Her mock exams results had come back and she'd nearly jumped up in her seat. Her marks were extremely high, and topped with other select few students. Knowing that A) Tom wouldn't avoid her, and B) he was a fanatic for grades as well, he'd be less pressed to send her away after gushing to him about her marks. With a pang, she remembered when she told Kelly.

"Cool..." the girl had said, giving her a quick smile before sundering off to her other friends.

Even though she hadn't said much, it hurt so much more than if she'd told her she didn't care straight out.

A familiar dark head bobbed at the end of the line issuing out of the ancient doorway of the classroom.

"Tom!" she called to him, smiling.

He gave her a cool glance and a slight smile, turning his steps towards her. Once he reached her, she struck a stupidly gallant pose and suggested that they walk together in polite, Victorian aged English. He gave the smallest of chuckles at her antics, before offering his arm in a refined manner. She laughed lightly and swung hers through, and they set off through the breezy, warm halls.

* * *

_June 5__th__ 1944. Friday._

_I must get rid of her. The closer she gets to me, the close she gets to finding out. I really do not want to hurt her, but it is for the best. If she were out of the picture, if she were gone...It would be easier to fulfill my work. I know she wouldn't approve. But what can I do? I can do nothing. She will choose her own path, and it will be far from mine._

* * *

They'd dropped the Victorian-Lord-and-Lady antics a little while back, and were now walking serenely inside the halls of Hogwarts. The sun was setting, pouring a molten orange into the windows and shining brightly on their faces, giving them a fiery glow. She sighed; thinking that it would be a perfect evening for all those happy couples out there... She shook her head of her petty thoughts and subjected to her excitement.

"Oh Tooom..." she trilled happily.

He gave her a strange look before asking her what she wanted.

"Guess what marks I got on my essays..." she grinned, turning around to face him.

His eyes darkened.

She blinked a few times, passing it off as a trick of the light.

"I assume you got good marks, seeing as how happy you are..." he said cautiously, trailing off.

She was confused now. That dark shadow in his black eyes was no trick, the chill in his voice impassable.

"What's wrong....?" she asked in a tiny voice. Her eyebrows furrowed in concern.

He looked at her full in the face, outright hatred glowing fiercely in his deep eyes.

She swallowed involuntarily as his face bowed menacingly to meet hers.

"If you hadn't noticed..." he said, his voice deathly quiet, lashing at her heart with cruel whips, "I _hate_ being beat at _anything_. If you were smart, you'd _back off". _

Anger flared in her chest, ripping violently through her in fiery waves. With a cry of frustration, she lifted her small hand and brought it down harshly onto his pale face.

"How _dare you!"_ she cried, her voice gravelly and choking with emotion.

His head whipped around to stare back into her blue eyes, alight with fire. She gazed levelly into his, and for a long time, neither spoke. Then, he broke the silence by grinning.

It was a terrible grin.

A grin so horrifyingly gruesome and cruel that it could no longer classify under any sort of smile. It reminded her of the way skulls naturally smiled in the way skulls do, only this was filled with such hate and pent up sins that it made Cassie's defiance dwindle away as quickly as it had raged. She wanted to run far away from this monster, and she almost did, but her grabbed the front of her shirt.

"Oh I see!" he snarled nastily at her, "Just because you disarmed me that day in Defence, you poor little dear, it gave you confidence in yourself! Well if you didn't notice, you got disarmed as well!"

Cassie tried desperately to step away from him, but he held her in place.

"Or maybe because you got equal marks as me on some tests you think that you're so smart now, and that no one can stand in your way!"

Cassie made a tiny noise of protest in her throat, shaking her head. Tears began to gather in her blue eyes. His contorted face got closer and closer to hers.

"_WELL GUESS WHAT, CASSANDRA SMITH_?!"

He roared at her. A tear ran down her cheek as he grabbed the side of her face with his free hand, cupping it roughly in what should have been a loving touch. He forced her to look at him.

"_You're short, you have the body of an eleven year old, you act like you matter, and you know what's the saddest part?" _his voice was venom. Venom that she didn't understand.

She shook her head, his hand still cupping her face painfully.

"_You're pathetic."_

He let go of her face and freed his hand from her shirt. His handsome dark face was shining with the bloody red glow of the sunset, giving him the appearance of a demon.

Cassie couldn't help it.

Her lip trembled and she ran, her dry sobs echoing in the blood washed corridor.

* * *

_A/N: GASP! POOR CASSIE! ; A ; She didn't deserve this treatment! My, my...Tom certainly has some issues, no?_

_In this chapter, I've also introduced Tom's little journal entries. It gives you insight as to why he's acting the way he is without ever leaving Cassie's POV. I find they worked well for this chapter. : D Well, review and tell me what you think!_


	19. An Unfortunate Hunger

_A/N: Silly Tom. Wouldn't know emotion if it smacked him soundly on the cheeks._

Cassie examined herself in the mirror. Her eyes squinted critically, scanning her scrunched face for any imperfections that could plague her. She stared deeply, practically pressing her forehead onto the cool glass and picking absently at a reddish spot on her nose. After deciding that her face wasn't going to do a lot of changing whether she stared at it for hours or not, she stepped back and examined her hair instead. Black, rather messy, and pulled back in a trademark pony tail. Unremarkable enough. Her uniform was pressed and her prefect badge nicely polished and only a slight coat of tanner spread on her pasty skin. With a huge effort at making herself feel marginally confident, she gave herself a grin...

Which would have initially worked wonders had a piece of breakfast not been glued to her front tooth.

Failing miserably at trying to bring on confidence, she picked the black-something from her tooth, scowled, and walked out.

* * *

Cassie wrote on the top of her page in her small, cramped writing; "_June __11th__, 1944."_Then, where most people would begin to write their feelings, secrets and desires, she drew a blank. It was a week since Tom had oh-so-suddenly decided that Cassie wasn't worth his time. An ugly scowl made its way to her face, her cheeks reddening spectacularly and her brow contracting brutally.

"_Tom Marvolo Frickin' Riddle is the most arrogant ponce that I have ever met ever. I hope he falls off of high cliff and impales himself on the jagged rocks below..." _

Aside from the general shock of what he'd done, anger had miraculously replaced Cassie's despair. Something inside her changed that Sunday morning that she woke up, realizing that he was just a boy, and if he did that he obviously didn't care about her anyway. Instead of the empty pit of sadness that usually plagued her after an argument, anger flared up like a dragon inside her. She didn't need him, she never did!

"_... and the black-scaled rabbit-creatures with their poisoned sharp teeth chew through his foul-tasting sinew and the dragons of hell wrap themselves around his trouser-area and drag him by his little-"_"_What_ are they going to drag him to hell by, now?" asked a female voice brightly just beside her ear.

Cassie jumped into the air, scattering her papers and spilling her ink all over the castle steps.

"_MERLIN!_ Kelly, _what_ in Jesus' best undershorts are you doing sneaking up on me like that?" Cassie gasped, swatting her friend less-than-lightly on her forearm. Instead of causing a 'reprimand' effect, she only succeeded in causing her friend to burst into strange little giggles that were slightly alarming to listen to.

"Well...Torture by laughter is better than nothing, I suppose..." Cassie muttered lamely as her friend proceeded to fall to her knees, clutching her stomach.

Cassie waited. Kelly still laughed. She waited some more. The laughter didn't cease.

"Oh, _shut your trap, will you!" _she exclaimed, clamping a hand over Kelly's mouth. Her eyes bulged like a fish's, and she desperately tried to rip Cassie's hands off for fear of suffocation.

Deciding that murdering Kelly at the present time wasn't exactly a good idea, she grudgingly let go. As Kelly wheezed and spluttered, Cassie grumbled: "So you finally decided I wasn't as scary as everyone told you?"

Kelly immediately looked guilty.

"I'm sorry..." she whispered, "It's just that everyone was saying that you were the cause of all these petrifications and all... And I _knew_ it wasn't you, but for some stupid reason I couldn't bring myself to talk to you..." she finished lamely and gave Cassie a miserable look.

"Alright..." she sighed, "but _please_ stop believing all the rumours you hear. You have a tendency to follow them without question..."

Kelly's grin was as bright as sunshine.

"Okay, I'll try!" she swiped her wand briskly and all of Cassie's scattered possessions cleaned and replaced themselves back into her bag. With a flourish, she put her want inside her robes and extended a hand to Cassie, who took it with relish.

"You know..." said Kelly, as they walked away, arm in arm, "You didn't have to call me Jesus. Kelly will do just fine."

* * *

Inside the corridors, it was dark and dank. The flames in the brass torches flickered and cast ghostly shadows on the stone walls, making creatures that sprung from the imagination seem real. Cassie walked hastily, wanting sorely to finish her prefect rounds, for once again, she found herself in the same corridor with the same bathroom where she'd found a frozen little girl lying on the ground and staring at whatever unseen horrors she'd seen. Shivers constantly tickled her spine, and cold sweat spread all across her body. She was beginning to feel sick, and wanted nothing more than to run away. But she couldn't do that, she was a prefect and needed to finish her rounds.

_Besides_, she rationalized,_ I'm almost done. Just have to take a quick peek in that bloody bathroom, then I can leave_.

But the closer she got to the bathroom door, the slower and slower she seemed to walk. Freezing, icy cold seemed to be breathing itself all over her gooseflesh skin, causing her to shiver even more violently than before. She could always run now...

But then she heard something.

A terrible hiss and spitting, spoken by something even more terrible:

A human.

She could tell from the voice that is was male, and that it was emanating from the very girls' bathroom that she'd investigated on that sick night.

Although he senses screamed at her to go away, she walked forewards anyways, each step feeling like lead, each step clicking in a nearly sinister way, and then she suddenly found herself standing in the middle of the bathroom, staring at the dark eyes and pale face of a boy she knew well.

Tom Riddle's eyes widened hungrily.

_A/N: Ooh, like we didn't see that coming! : O Review, or I'll send an army of hell dragons to wrap themselves around the trouser areas of all the males in your families. Sorry for the painfully short chapter as well. 3_


	20. An Unfortunate Death

**NOTE: IF YOU REVIEWED THE NOTE THAT STATED I HAD LOST MY SCRIBBLER ON CHAPTER 21, AND YOU WANT TO SEND A REVIEW, SEND IT BY MEANS OF PERSONAL MESSAGE. Thanks!**

_A/N: Well. I can't find that scribbler, so I decided to rewrite the chapters. *sigh*_

_

* * *

  
This was it. She knew it. With her heart beating a frantic tattoo, she ran down, down, down to the girls' bathroom, the one where she had discovered the small, frozen body. He was there, and there was no escaping her fate. Yet, this did not give her fear, but rather drilled simple understanding into her heart that she was to stop him, or she was to die._

Cold breath caressed Cassie's pale, exposed neck.

Icy cold hands held her around her middle, holding her close in what should have been a warm embrace but wasn't. It felt wrong. The taller person held her close, a small smile across his lips, but Cassie didn't feel safe. The water from the broken and overflowing sinks in the bathroom pooled around their feet, sinking deep into her school uniform shoes and soaking her white socks. She began to tremble, her clammy hands clutching the inhumanly icy sweater vest that held inside it a frighteningly cold boy.

"_It's alright...I won't hurt you..."_ whispered the sickeningly sweet mouth in a poisonous tone into the soft skin of her gooseflesh neck.

She couldn't move and she could barely breathe. Her heart beat wildly inside her chest, but somehow she could not feel its beats, as though she had already joined her father in the grave. Her entire body began to shake, her eyes flicking for a quick moment over to the waterlogged body of the dead girl lying slumped against a bathroom stall like a discarded ragdoll, her glassy eyes staring at horrors that Cassie couldn't see. She fiercely bit back the urge to cry, to become overwhelmed by the emptiness and tragedy of what she'd done.

She'd found the Hogwarts killer, and the murderer was holding her so softly in his arms.

She knew he would kill her now. He'd warned her, by shunning her and trying to stop her from seeing him. We was trying to warn her to leave him be so that he would not have to hurt her as well, but Cassie had been too blind to see it.

Tears welled in her eyes, the world of his vest blurring and disappearing as she buried her head into his shoulder. He clicked his tongue in sympathy and rubbed her back soothingly.

"Cassie... You'll be alright..." he told her softly, but she knew better.

She shook her head into his .

"No, Tom... I'll never be alright.... How _could_ you? How could you possibly..."

Her tears choked her and she couldn't continue.

"How could I have killed someone?" he asked, the cold bluntness causing her heart to ache.

"Yes..." she sobbed.

"It's easy...." he whispered, "but now that you've seen... I can't let you go. Join me, Cassie... Join me. You love me with all your heart... Be together with me in this. We can run away, and I will teach you to be the greatest witch of all time under my instruction and we can start the new rule of wizards and muggles alike with you and I at the top, the King and Queen of our peoples..." he crooned softly into her ear, his voice coming quicker and louder as he spoke. His excitement shone through.

Cassie stopped crying. She couldn't feel anymore. She'd become numb. Calmly, she stepped away from him, holding him at arms length and looking despairingly into his dark, onyx eyes.

"No, Tom..." she told him softly, smiling a watery, sad smile, "I can't,"

His eyes hardened.

"You know what will happen to you now, then?" he said, his voice shaking with suppressed emotion.

Cassie closed her eyes and lowered her head.

"Yes..." she whispered, her voice trembling.

_Open your eyessss...._

Of their own accord, Cassie's eyes flung open and she stared down at the snake-like image of Death.

_A/N: Actually a lot different than the original, but I actually like this better. : D_


	21. An Unfortunate Redemption

_A/N: If you're seein' thangs... Runnin' through yo' head... Who can ya call? GHOSTBUSTERS!  
__Sorry. I was listening to the 'Ghostbusters' 45' record a few minutes ago. XD ON WITH THE CHAPTER._

**THIS IS THE SECOND-LAST CHAPTER. WOOT WOOT. The next one is the finale.**

* * *

Cassie's eyes flung open.

A million feelings and sensations rushed over her, an electric shock of pain from behind her eyes, the sickening swimming of images that wouldn't come into focus all around her, every tendon and muscle sore beyond belief, feeling as though they'd tensed for years....

She moaned and closed her eyes firmly shut, trying to ease the angry swirling in her stomach.

People poking and prodding her, feeling and squeezing and touching her head, a jumble of mixed voices saying different things, orders, relieved tones, and someone warm holding her hand so tight...

After the chaos died away, Cassie finally deemed it safe to open her eyes.

A feeling of utter relief and love blossomed within her heart as she beheld her mother staring down at her eldest daughter with nothing but concern etched on her softly lined face.

"Mum..." Cassie managed to croak, and her mother submitted to a tear or two as she embraced her small framed child.

"Oh, Cassandra..." her mother muttered, "I thought I was going to lose you..."

* * *

Cassie spent the last weeks of school in the hospital wing, being exempt from her sixth year exams. Her teachers handed her work to do themselves and everyone deemed her a general hero. But for what, she couldn't remember. She knew for a fact that she had stopped the monster from hurting or killing anymore students, but there was something missing. There was a boy there, she knew there was, but for the life of her she couldn't place who it was.

The end of the school year brought excitement among the sixth years. This time next year they would finally be graduating from Hogwarts, and most of them couldn't wait. Cassie boarded the Hogwarts Express with Kelly right beside her, waving goodbye to the castle and teachers and giggling about nothing in particular.

As they walked down the hall to a compartment, Cassie accidentally collided with a tall, dark haired boy. She looked up into the boy's face and saw him watching her with wide, grey eyes.

The sun glinted on Cassie's ebony hair, and made it shine with a golden glow, her long pale face was like porcelain, and her beautiful blue eyes the colour of the finest sapphires sparkled upwards at him, her pretty pink lips open in an expression of being slightly startled. Tom blinked long and slow, burning her image into his mind to be never forgotten.

Cassie blinked and tilted her head to this side. Tom gave her a small smile, and his dark eyes softened slightly. As he walked around her and away, Cassie suddenly knew who the boy that set the monster on the school was.

This realization that Tom Marvolo Riddle was a killer neither shocked, nor disturbed her. It simply settled comfortably in her mind, like the realization that life is short and that you will eventually die someday. She let it curl up comfortably in the back of her mind, and vowed that she will leave him his peace and never tell anyone. So, instead, she smiled and waved.

* * *

_September 3__rd__, 1947_

The first day of classes for the seventh years dawned early and sunny, the last vestiges of summer shining brightly down upon the Hogwarts grounds. All the students were heading down to their classes lazily, calling out to old friends and rejoicing in the hot day. Apart from, of course, Cassie Smith.

'Shit. I did _not_ just light that tapestry on fire!' she thought despairingly as she ran.

Cassie ran into the disused classroom, her uniform mary-janes click-clacking on the stone floor as they marked her hastened escape. She needed to hide quickly, and fast. She quietly opened the creaking door, and slipped inside, closing it behind her with a soft 'thud' against its ancient wooden frame.

The room was dimly lit by a wide window that overlooked the grey sky and the dark lake, partially covered by what appeared to be a thin, fraying sheet that looked bleached from the sunlight of countless years. Old desks were stacked in one corner, half of them as sun washed as the sheet that barely managed to cover them. Some were broken, most heavily graffitied, all were coated in thick layers of dust. Here and there lay an assortment of old schooling equipment, and in one corner, an ancient cauldron was tipped over, the dry, sticky looking substance that had poured from it in a student's illegal attempt at a forbidden potion completely congealed to the floor. It too had a thick layer of dust sitting on top of it. With a jolt of familiarity she realized this was the same classroom she'd visited with Sam, so long ago now.

But, it was in one of the dark spots that she noticed a humanoid figure reposed gently against an old stack of books. The figure looked male, from the broad shoulders, and it was slumped over in what could only be described as a miserable pose.

It didn't take her long to recognize him. She'd seen him in enough dark places to be certain.

"Tom?" she called out quietly, placing her books gently onto a table, causing dust to curl up into the air like smoke from a fire.

He didn't reply, but she never really expected him to.

"Tom..." she said his name, mouthing the words on her small pink lips, letting them rise over her mouth pleasantly. She walked slowly towards him. He never moved, never even looked in her direction. She kneeled beside him, leaning against the old desks with a sigh.

Following instinct, she leaned her head against his shoulders.

"Tom...."she whispered against his skin, "What's wrong?"

He couldn't bear to look at her, so he looked at her shoes instead.

"You know what I've done".

It was a statement, not a question. Cassie took her time before slowly nodding. She had suspected it of him, and now her suspicions were proved true.

"And yet you still lean your head on my shoulders" his tone was bittersweet.

"I'm not afraid of you" she told him simply.

"What if I kill you now?" he asked her, his body tensing, his voice harsh.

"Then I will be dead."

He relaxed.

Then:  
"Why are you here?"

He wasn't asking why she was in the disused classroom. He was asking why she was still here, sitting calmly next to a murderer.

"Because, Tom... I really wish I could change what you've done. But I can't. The things you say and the things you do go completely against what I was taught was right. So, I'll sit here with you, in a disused classroom and cuddle to your shoulder...But...I could never go with you. You've chosen your path, and I've chosen mine."

As she spoke, her voice grew watery and weak, but she forced herself to continue. The tears eventually went away, and she closed her eyes to breathe in the scent of his shirt.

"I know..." his voice was barely audible above the silence that hung as heavily in the air as the dust that swirled thickly around them.

"Just please... Let me do this for one moment" he leaned into her small, beautifully pale face.

Then he kissed her.

It was chaste, sweet, only lasting a few seconds, but stung in the mouth with sourness. This kiss was the only one they would ever share.

After a few moments had passed, Cassie rose from the floor, gently detangling herself from his embrace.

She smiled, and let one pearly tear slide down her face before she turned, retrieved her books and bag from the table she'd left them on, and slipped out the door.

_A/N: I know. ; A ; I cried. I'm pathetic. XD_


	22. Yes, Unfortunately

_

* * *

_Cassandra DuPrau sighed and plonked herself listlessly onto the bar stool.

For her, it had been a very trying day. Her boss had to 'gently remind' her that she "needed to learn what due dates were for". The Daily Prophet manager was certainly a stickler for dates, to a point of being obsessed. Then she had gone home and discovered her husband, Sam, had forgotten to pick up their two daughters, Maya and Lucy, at their babysitters', (as he so often did), so she was made to trek out once more.

Cassie fingered her wedding band and smiled at the memory of her wedding twelve years ago. She'd been twenty back then, filled with hope and innocence at the world. At the reception, she'd very typically managed to knock the cake all over her wedding dress. She sighed at the happy memory, forcing herself to come back to the present.

What she needed at the moment was a drink. She'd left Sam with the children, but she had little confidence in him when it came to their 'adventurous' twins.

As the barman got her drink, she vaguely took a look around at the various people situated in the little pub. A little girl and her father ate fish and chips in a booth at the back, a meal the Red Feather Pub & Eatery was famous for, several warlocks sat hunched together at another table, a young woman and her giggly friends at another table, and a hooded gentleman sitting on the bar stool beside her.

It seemed odd to Cassie that the man beside her remained hooded. She didn't bother herself too much over it, but the straight-backed way he sat and the careful slowness of which he ate his meal seemed strangely familiar to her, like an old friend she hadn't seen for a while.

"Here you go, Cassie" smiled the barman John, with whom she was close. He pushed her girly fruit drink towards her and grinning while placing a pretty blue umbrella in the drink's peachy depths.

"Thanks John" she said, trying her best to smile sincerely. The old barman patted her shoulder kindly and walked off to serve a haggle of newcomers.

At the sound of her voice, the hooded man beside her stopped eating, and turned his head slowly in her direction. She couldn't help but look at him as he looked her in the eye.

"Hello, Cassie" said the calm, cool voice of Tom Marvolo Riddle.

Cassie nearly spat out her drink onto the bar counter.

"Tom?!" she gasped, spluttering in shock.

He smiled, but there was something a lot different in his smile these days. His skin looked drawn and pale and had an unhealthy greyish tinge to it. The bags under his eyes were a dark purple, like someone had punched him, and his eyes were much more slanted than they had ever been before. His once black eyes shone strangely maroon in the half-light of the Red Feather's lamps on the walls.

"I see you've been... Ah, busy..." he said, smirking at her once more and glancing down to her ring finger.

"Oh.. Yeah..." Cassie blushed, then closed her eyes and shook her head.

Seeing this, Tom's smirk only widened.

"I've got two little daughters, twins, now" Cassie said in a sudden rush, a hint of pride that she couldn't suppress entering her voice. She dug in her purse a moment before extracting a small photo and placing it in front of him.

Tom picked it up and examined the dark haired girls in the photo. The taller girl had pretty hazel eyes and pin-straight brownish hair, while the second, smaller girl had the shiniest blue eyes and the curliest black hair he'd ever seen.

"They're beautiful", he said approvingly, handing her back the photo and giving her a small smile.

They both elapsed into what could be called a companionable silence, Cassie drinking her drink and Tom eating his meal.

Once he was finished, he set his utensils down on the polished wood surface of the bar then paused, his head bowed as though in deep thought. Then he let his hood fall to his shoulders, and he turned to Cassie with a grin once more on his once-handsome face.

"You always loved me, didn't you?" he said, a twinkle in his eyes that had curiously turned black while she wasn't looking.

Cassie gaped in shock. He was saying something like that _now?_ She turned away from him and her shock turned to anger. She glared at her empty drink.

"Yes, unfortunately..." was all that was coherent in her long string of mumbled words.

He smiled at her.

She wanted to be sick.

Love is such a fickle thing.

* * *

**THE END**

**THANK YOU TO ALL WHO REVIEWED AND\OR READ HIS FIC.** It wouldn't be here without you guys, and I'm completely and insanely happy that it's been appreciated. I just want to say that I love you all, and thanks for sticking with it, even when the plot got silly. ^ ^

Here's a zillion cookies to every reader and reviewer, I adore you all!

**P.S.** **Don't bite any dogs!**

Love forever,  
The-Quoi


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